Ayame's Secret
by EMT0
Summary: In canon, Naruto and Ayame were casual friends at best, but what if they had been more? What if Ayame had been his first and closest friend? But Ayame has a secret. A secret whose impact will shake the Elemental Nations and will inspire Naruto to dream and strive for greater than he could have ever imagined before. To be greater than even... "Oi, Jiji, who's the Rikkudo Sennin?"
1. Ramen at First Sight

AN: The premise of this story is that Naruto, instead of being only a casual acquaintance to Ayame, actually truly befriends her early in his life, and the consequences that would follow as a result of this. Yes, Naruto will be with more than one girl, and you'll see why. Note that Ayame is a year younger than she is in canon. Ditto for Hana.

**A Better Friend**

**Chapter 1: New Friendships  
**

* * *

"Jiji!" shouted a blonde boy as he burst past the large metal gates between him and the approaching white-robed Sandaime Hokage. Sarutobi smiled as he continued to stroll down the street calmly while the blonde rocket raced at him with a happy smile. Kneeling down, he embraced the blond missile that slammed into him in a warm hug that was tightly reciprocated.

"How have you been, Naruto-kun? Made any progress with reading and writing?" asked Hiruzen as he pulled back from the embrace and set his hands on the boy's shoulders. Said boy simply grinned sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. Naruto had only recently begun to learn to read and write as would be expected of any four year-old, but progress was slow as he didn't have someone willing to teach him like others did. Not even the caretakers in the orphanage paid him any more mind than was strictly necessary, so the Sandaime had recently taken it upon himself to teach Naruto personally; even if it only meant sending down a Kage Bunshin to watch over the boy.

Hiruzen graced the boy with a smile and dangled the bait in front of the young hyperactive boy. "I expect the best from you Naruto-kun. You do want to be Hokage, don't you?"

"You bet Jiji, that hat will be mine!" declared Naruto with a loud shout, drawing curious glances from a few old women as they peeked out their windows to see what the commotion was about before one of them huffed and drew back inside, shutting the window with a snort. Hiruzen's eyes narrowed slightly but shrugged it off and returned to his happy countenance, beckoning Naruto to follow him along on the way back to the Hokage Mansion.

The two began to slowly walk through Konoha as Naruto regaled his idol and surrogate grandfather with tales of his epic struggle against words, to Hiruzen's great amusement. Once the boy had his fill of childish whinging, Sarutobi drew his enraptured attention by beginning to recount a story of his time as a younger ninja.

As Naruto eagerly listened to Sarutobi's recounting one of the First Hokage's many battles with Uchiha Madara, his nose…his nose detected a pleasant aroma floating through the air. Stopping where he stood, he quickly turned around, sniffing deeply as he tried to find the source. Hiruzen stopped and looked at Naruto curiously, wondering what had gotten into the little blonde.

"Do you smell that Jiji? It smells really good!" said Naruto in excitement as he began to salivate.

Sarutobi raised a questioning eyebrow before he too recognized the smell that was rolling through the air. _Ramen_. His lips quirked slightly at the irony of Naruto discovering his mother's favorite dish like a bloodhound. While of half a mind to continue walking, Hiruzen decided to indulge Minato's son. If Naruto was Kushina's son, he was only hastening the inevitable, after all.

"Let's go find it, show me the way Naruto-kun!" exclaimed the Hokage as he grabbed Naruto by the armpits. With a surprised yelp from the blonde, Hiruzen lifted the little boy onto his shoulders, making him giggle happily. Naruto already knew what to do, having had the opportunity once before to ride on the Sandaime's shoulders, and stuck his arms out like a compass, pointing towards the intoxicating fragrance. Hiruzen began to lightly jog in the direction Naruto pointed making Naruto whoop in childish glee.

"Faster Jiji, faster!" shouted the excited blonde as the Hokage chuckled and obliged him, taking to the roofs with a jump as Naruto exclaimed his happiness. Naruto continued to guide the Hokage by sniffing in deeply and pointing out where he thought the smell was coming from, all the while laughing excitedly like any other four-year old would with his grandfather in such a similar situation.

Ten minutes of wandering around fruitlessly later, Hiruzen was beginning to suspect Naruto was drawing them in a circle in order to extend his joyride on the Sandaime's shoulders when Naruto shouted, "There!" The boy was pointing at a modest, yet clean-looking restaurant with the words ICHIRAKU RAMEN written in large bold print across the front. Jumping down in front of the restaurant, Hiruzen carefully extracted Naruto from his shoulders and onto the ground. Normally the blonde would have tried to complain about his fun ending early, but he was too hungry to care at the moment as he stared at the restaurant with longing. Hiruzen's face clearly showed his amusement as he stepped forward and walked into the restaurant, Naruto trotting happily at his heels.

"Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen, how m_-may_ I help you, Hokage-sama?" greeted a now nervous Teuchi Ichiraku as he took note of his newest client. His usual friendly welcome had tapered off in shock at seeing the Sandaime Hokage of all people in his modest ramen shop. While Hiruzen did visit the village restaurants, he had rarely if ever visited the cheaper restaurants, seeing as most eating outs had occurred in the company of Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, his old teammates, and had served more as formalities to their usual round of back-and-forth bickering over his policies than a pleasant lunch with old friends.

"I'd like to order a bowl of ramen for Naruto-kun here, as well as another for me," offered Hiruzen with a kind smile as he took his seat at one of the stools in front of the counter and hoisted Naruto onto another; it wasn't the first nor the last time civilians would scramble in front of him, and he had been on the receiving end of this behavior for what was soon to be three generations. His response to a person scrambling over themselves due to his presence was as natural as making hand seals to the aged Kage at this stage of his life.

"Coming right up!" said Teuchi as his bluster quickly returned. Gazing down to his side, Teuchi pointed towards the sink where a clean stack of ramen bowls sat. "Ayame, help me prepare the bowls," instructed Teuchi to a small white bandana that seemed to be bobbing around the restaurant hurriedly as Hiruzen sat a little straighter up to see peculiar sight. Standing next to the ramen chef was a young girl who couldn't be older than ten years old at the stove as she quickly began to set out the bowls and chop vegetables.

"Your apprentice?" asked a curious Sarutobi as he glanced up to see the ramen chef's gentle smile as he gazed down at the girl.

"No Hokage-sama, this is actually my daughter. I'm teaching her how to run the stand so that she can take over once I'm old and grey," answered Teuchi with a warm smile in his daughter's direction. Teuchi turned back around to get started on the two bowls but noticed that his daughter was starting to sweat and looked rather tired.

"Ayame, come sit down and take a break to eat dinner; say hello to the Hokage and his young friend here, Naruto, was it?" said Teuchi while Naruto nodded with a grin on his face. Teuchi knew who the boy was, of course. Hell, there was hardly an adult in Konoha who didn't know of the blonde Uzumaki, but this was actually the first time that he had seen the kid, who seemed nice enough, demon fox in his belly aside.

Stepping out from behind the counter, the brown-haired girl plopped down on the stool next to Naruto with a tired sigh. She was dressed in white kitchen clothing and an apron, and her face was lightly covered with sweat and grease. Despite her poor appearance and apparent exhaustion, she turned to the young boy and mustered the energy to give him a small smile as she introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Ichiraku Ayame. What's your name?"

"I'm Uzumuaki Naruto! It's nice to meet you Ayame-chan!" said Naruto happily, shooting her a friendly smile. It wasn't often that he had the chance to make new friends, what with the orphanage's caretakers doing their best to keep him away from the other children. Most of them had been happy to ignore the blonde at the caretakers' not-so-subtle hints save for a handful that were generally around his age.

Naruto continued to smile at Ayame as she slowly felt the growing desire to cuddle the little blonde with the angelic smile. That is, until a bowl of ramen was set down before said blonde by Ayame's father. Naruto's eyes had followed the bowl of ramen since he noticed it in Teuchi's hand all the way to its being placed in front of the boy. Teuchi had barely let go of the bowl when the young boy pounced and began to devour his meal.

Ayame would never forget the sight of a four year-old chibi devouring a full bowl of steaming hot ramen in less than a minute. The ghastly image had certainly helped to knock the blonde's cuteness factor in her mind down a peg or three.

"Naruto, you should really try using chopsticks..." muttered Hiruzen dejectedly as he looked away from the sight, slightly embarrassed that his grandson in all but blood had such atrocious manners. Hiruzen resolved that to teach Naruto some manners, and soon; the boy desperately needed them. Not that Naruto was minding his grandfather's words as he looked up from his bowl at Teuchi with a satisfied smile.

"Can I have some more Ojii-san?" asked Naruto innocently, making Ayame and Teuchi stare in shock. _He wanted MORE?!_

Turning to the Hokage for an answer, the Sandaime surprised Teuchi when he nodded in approval. He had known full well to expect that this would happen due to Naruto's mother being, well, Naruto's mother.

Teuchi turned back to the anxious blonde and shot him a grin, "Coming right up kid!"

Ayame, still rooted to her seat in shock, would remain there for the rest of the night in a state of near disbelief as the young blonde packed down noodles in himself like a starving Akimichi.

* * *

"Uaagggghhhh, I'm stuffed! Thanks for bringing me here Jiji and thanks for the food Teuchi-ojiisan!" exclaimed Naruto as he leaned back contently on his stool and let loose a loud yawn.

Naruto had managed to eat a shocking 4 bowls of ramen before he called it quits, beating out the Hokage's own 2 and Ayame's 1. While Hiruzen hadn't been trying to compete with Naruto, the blonde had gotten it into his head that he had 'beaten' the Sandaime, to the amusement of the two adults.

"You're welcome, Naruto, it was a pleasure having you two here," called out Teuchi with a smile as he waved the two goodbye. It wasn't every day that the Hokage visited a restaurant, and his shop was sure to see a rise in traffic due to his visit. The Konoha gossip circle worked in mysterious ways like that, and this time to his benefit.

Hiruzen patted Naruto on the head as he set down the ryo needed to cover the cost of Naruto's massive appetite plus a bit extra while giving his thanks to Teuchi for the meal and offering a short goodbye to the ramen chef's daughter who nodded back respectfully, too shy to respond to the leader of the village.

"Come along Naruto-kun, we've got to get you back so that you can sleep," called Hiruzen as he rose from his seat.

By now, Ayame had snapped out of her reverie and was helping Naruto down from his seat due to his age(and the fact that he was so full he'd probably vomit if he were to do so much as hop off from the stool). She watched the boy do a quasi-waddle out of the restaurant with a soft smile, already endeared to his antics without having consciously realized it.

"Bye Naruto-kun, be sure to come again!" called Ayame cheerily as she stepped outside of the stand and waved him goodbye. Freaky appetite aside, he was nice and cute little kid, she could get used to having him around. That and her Tou-chan seemed to go easier on her when he and the Sandaime were around.

"Bye Ojii-san, Ayame-chan! You'll be seeing me again dattebayo!" said Naruto, smiling so hard that his face squinted into fox eyes. Hiruzen offered the father-daughter duo a wave of his own as he turned away from them and began to guide Naruto down the street and back towards the orphanage. Naruto began to happily ramble about the deliciousness that was ramen to an amused Hiruzen as they disappeared into the night, completely out of earshot.

Stepping back into the shop, Ayame commented to her father idly as she picked up the empty bowls, "He was a nice kid, I like him. Kinda strange that Hokage-sama is running around with a random orphan, ne Tou-chan?"

Teuchi hesitated before offering up a grin, "He's probably getting used to being a grandfather seeing as his grandson Konohamaru was born recently, and from what I've heard that Naruto kid's parents were good friends of the Sandaime before they died during the Kyuubi attack." Teuchi was mentally patting himself on the back for his excellent acting skills.

"Hopefully I'll get to see Naruto-kun again soon," said Ayame softly as she mindlessly began to clean the bowls, not having heard a word that came out of her father's mouth. She didn't fail to hear the next ones though.

"Sounds like someone's got a crush."

"TOU-SAN!"

* * *

From that fateful evening forwards, things started to get different for Ayame. While she still attended the school for civilian children and worked from when she got out of school at twelve until five in the evening, Naruto had quickly made it a habit to come visit the ramen stand every day around noon. While that in itself wasn't that much different from any other client that visited semi-regularly, Naruto stood out like a sore thumb in comparison to all of the other customers that came around.

For one, Naruto had a pretty distinct look to him, in Ayame's opinion. All of blondes in Konoha were either Yamanakas, the estranged Tsunade, or the lone orphan boy with blonde hair, blue eyes, and whisker marks. Rumors had long been circulating that Naruto was the result of an affair between a Yamanaka and an Inuzuka due to his hair color and facial markings, not that Ayame had heard any of this.

Another reason was the fact that he was used to roaming around alone as a four-year old. He would regularly come and go unaccompanied by anyone, crawl his way onto a stool, and chow down using his monthly allowance from the Hokage while chatting away happily to the two ramen chefs. It was as though no one was truly responsible for Naruto as he seemed to have no curfew, no minders, and no worries about getting in trouble. The one time Ayame had asked him about why he never seemed to get in trouble for staying out late, he had chortled and laughed, making Ayame huff at him before she hit him lightly on the back of the head for his cheek. At least, she thought it was lightly. Naruto's head had taken a bath in his ramen, not that it stopped him from eating it anyways.

Speaking of ramen, then there was his appetite. Kami, his appetite. Ayame knew she would never get used to watching him eat, no, _devour_ bowl after bowl of ramen like a bottomless, eternally hungry pit. He never seemed to carry that appetite over for anything other than ramen either; he never ordered any of the few things they had on the menu that actually weren't ramen.

Due to his continued visits to the ramen stand, Ayame had come to grow fond of the little blonde and he was constantly on her mind. Truth be told, apart from her father, Naruto was by far the person she spent the most time with nowadays. Not even the few acquaintances she had in the civilian school were around her as much as the ravenous little blonde with a penchant for ramen.

Today was roughly a week from the day that Naruto had first met the Ichiraku family. He happened to be happily strolling down the street as people cleared him a wide berth per usual. Not that he noticed, focused as he was on filling his stomach and spending time with some of the few people that actually liked him. He smiled widely as the modest little stand came to view and began to jog the last few steps towards his destination in anticipation.

Stepping into the stand, he shouted out his usual greeting of, "Hi Teuchi-jiisan, Ayame-chan!" as he scrambled up onto one of the stools, already salivating at the thought of the his precious noodle dish. Ayame smiled at the blonde from behind the counter as she raised the divisor and made to sit down with him. She had managed to convince her father to let her eat her lunch with Naruto whenever the blonde came by in the early afternoon. So far, he had yet to miss a day since he first started visiting the ramen stand for lunch.

"Do ya want the usual, Naruto?" asked Teuchi as he shot the blonde a knowing smile. Naruto seemed to have taken to a precise order of eating ramen, rotating from beef, to chicken, pork, miso, and by the Sandaime's orders, a vegetable bowl, and then back to beef. The Sandaime had actually asked that Teuchi refuse to give Naruto more than two bowls a day until he was older; something that Naruto had greatly resented for he had childishly ran to the Hokage Tower to complain to the old man once he found out from Teuchi.

Naruto nodded, and Teuchi pulled out a hot bowl of beef ramen from behind the counter, to Naruto's delight and Ayame's eyes rolling. Ayame contented herself with slowly eating her own bowl of miso ramen that her dad set before her; talking to Naruto right know would be an exercise in futility, as she had quickly come to realize in the days prior. When eating ramen, Naruto appeared to have a one-track mind and was dead to the world unless it came between him and his ramen.

She was broken from her musing when Naruto let out a loud belch and turned to her with a smile, "Say, Ayam-"

Ayame didn't let Naruto get in another word as she turned to him with a frown. "Naruto, you've really got to learn some manners, you shouldn't eat like that or burp in front of others," reprimanded Ayame lightly. Even if his lack of table manners did frustrate her, she was still too fond of the little blond to do more than lightly scold him.

Naruto looked down into his empty ramen bowl with his head hanging downwards. "Sorry Ayame-chan, I'll try to be better," trailed off the now demure Uzumaki in defeat. Ayame giggled at seeing Naruto's usual bluster fade so quickly at her light teasing, before recalling that he had been about to say something earlier before she chided him.

"What was it that you were saying before, Naruto-kun?" inquired Ayame(1), making Naruto perk up in remembrance.

"Oh, right! I wanted to ask if you can come play with me in the park!" said Naruto excitedly as he gave a pleading look at Teuchi, puppy eyes and all.

Ayame cast a glance at her father. Normally, she would be helping her dad until five when she would go home on her own and do her homework and relax while her dad would work the stand until closing time. "Can I please go, Tou-san?" asked Ayame, unknowingly letting in some of the hope she felt at the thought of going out to play for the first time in ages.

Teuchi considered it for a moment before bowing his head with a small twitch of his lips, earning him a bright smile from his daughter. He knew that his daughter didn't really socialize with her friends at school, and he felt that it was his fault. He sometimes felt guilty knowing that his daughter wouldn't have much of a childhood due to the need to keep the ramen stand going, and that meant keeping her busy working here so as to make ends meet instead of hiring some help.

"Go have fun you two, but be sure to be back by five, you're with me until closing today!" said Teuchi with a grin at the two happy children.

"Yosh! Let's go Ayame-chan, I always wanted to play on the swing!" said Naruto as he grabbed her hand and raced outside, Ayame being half-dragged along by the overexcited blonde. He didn't even give her the chance to drop off her work uniform!

"We're gonna have a whole lotta fun, Ayame-chan! First we can play on the swings, then we can play tag, then we can play ninja!" rambled Naruto excitedly as he dragged a smiling if slightly exasperated Ayame along like a puppet, until she caught what Naruto had said and almost froze up. The last game Naruto mentioned had Ayame uncomfortable on the inside, but with a deep sigh she relaxed and forced her smile to return. Naruto never noticed as the two continued to hurry towards the playground.

Upon getting there, the two quickly lost themselves in their fun and Ayame forgot her earlier apprehension. As Naruto promised, they had first gone to the swings, and Naruto had proven to be stronger than she would have suspected when he managed to push the older girl high into the air, to her delight. They had then gone on to spend the rest of the day playing tag, a game Naruto seemed to be unnaturally good at due to his knack for hiding. Ayame even enjoyed herself when they played ninja despite her earlier trepidation.

Unknown to the children, many of the adults with children in the park had noticed them playing for the last few hours. For many of them, it was the first time that they had seen Naruto since he had spent the last four years of his life within the orphanage, for the most part. While some had simply returned to ignoring Naruto, others had stared uncomfortably as they saw Naruto behave, well, like a normal boy instead of the bloodthirsty monster that they had convinced themselves lurked on the inside.

It was two laughing and smiling children that returned to the Ichiraku Ramen stand later that day, Ayame guiding Naruto along by the hand as they laughed at something Naruto had said all the while Naruto nursed a silly, happy grin.

"I'm guessing you two had fun?" asked Teuchi with a small smile as the two plopped down in front of him.

"You bet Ojii-san! Ayame-chan's awesome!" shouted Naruto exuberantly, drawing a small blush from Ayame.

"Yeah, we had fun Tou-san. Thanks for letting me go out and play," said Ayame with a tired smile. She personally was exhausted. Naruto on the other hand, looked like he could go for round two and three, and probably round four with the way he continued to bounce around and chatter excitedly about his day.

"Don't thank me yet Ayame, you've still got work to do!" said Teuchi with an evil grin as he placed a bowl in front of the tired(well, not Naruto) duo.

Ayame just groaned and rested her head on the counter as Naruto patted her on the back absentmindedly while slowly munching on his ramen.

From that day forward, Ayame would quickly come to consider Naruto her best friend.

* * *

**_Timeskip_**

* * *

And so it was that a pattern was established. Every day at lunch, Naruto would arrive at the stand at noon, eat lunch with Ayame, and then the two would go off to play. For Ayame, it was the most fun that she had had in years. She and Naruto had also met other kids, although most were Naruto's age. They met two girls named Ino and Sakura on their second day of playing in the park, and although a bit on the bratty side, both seemed to look up to her and got along well enough with Naruto.

Naruto had personally made friends with the Inuzuka siblings as well about six months after he met Ayame, although that same meeting inadvertently made him a whole slew of friends and acquaintances. The two had been playing tag one day as they waited for Ino and Sakura to arrive when a girl named Hana had approached them. She had been dressed in nondescript clothing but stood out due to the two prominent red markings on her face and appeared to be around Ayame's age. She was dragging along a younger boy who was angrily trying to break the older girl's grip on his shirt, whom also had similar markings on his cheeks. Ayame's eyes lit up in recognition at the sight of the girl but she said nothing. "Hey, you two, can Kiba play with you guys? He's been seeing you play here for a while and wanted to play with you, but he's feeling a bit cowardly. Isn't that right Kiba-chan?" questioned the girl in a sing-song voice.

"SHUT UP NEESAN!" hollered the angry boy, but he quickly stopped once he noticed that Naruto and Ayame were staring at him curiously, making him quickly shut up and blush angrily as he continued to fight his sister's grip.

Naruto broke into a smile. "Sure! Why don't you play with us too, ah, what's your name again neechan?"

"My name is Inuzuka Hana, and I'm this puppy's big sister," she said with a giggle.

_He's like a denser, more adorable Kiba,_ thought the younger girl as she tightened her hold on her brother's shirt.

The now identified Inuzuka boy continued to give his sister the evil eye until he sighed and slacked his resistance, making his sister let go of his collar and dropping him unceremoniously on the ground. His sister nodded contentedly in approval, making the younger boy growl in frustration.

"Fine, let's play, but I'm not it!" shouted Kiba as he scrambled off his butt and took off into the bunched up cluster of trees near the back of the park.

"Hana's it!" shouted Naruto as he began to race in the direction opposite of Kiba, Ayame hot on his heels.

Hana blinked once, then twice before an angry bush came to her cheeks as she realized she had been left behind and shouted out, "Okay, fine then, here I come!" as she began to chase after the blonde brat. Hana smirked, thinking she would easily come out on top in the game of tag as she formed a hand sign and began to shakily channel chakra into her legs, making her run just a bit faster than before. She had only just learned how to do this, but she was a fast learner and this was the first real chance to try it out outside of classes.

To her chagrin, she found that it didn't really help her at all. Kiba was too used to dodging her, Naruto, while not faster, could outrun her by sheer stamina alone, and Ayame was simply faster than her even with chakra flowing into her legs, much to her surprise. It didn't hurt that Naruto showed up whenever Ayame started slowing down and began to needle her, giving Ayame some much needed respite as she shifted her attention(and anger) at Naruto, making him laugh uproariously.

Hana, if she wasn't annoyed before, was really starting to get pissed off. She had been chasing them for over an hour and had yet to tag anybody! She blamed the adorable and apparently-not-so-dense blonde for her misfortune. Huggable and upbeat he may be, but he was a devious little brat on the inside, she could already tell.

The hour-long chase had finally ended when a panting Hana Inuzuka fell onto the grass exhausted on top of a hill after having chased a giggling Naruto up and down said hill for the last five minutes. Naruto walked back to the exhausted girl and shot her a cheeky grin, earning a low growl from her causing him to smile harder.

Leaning down, he slapped her hand with his own and collapsed next to her, staring at the sky, making Hana look at him funny in confusion.

"Why did you let yourself get tagged?" asked Hana. She had always been competitive and couldn't see herself doing THAT.

"You looked like you needed a break, so I took it off your hands!" exclaimed Naruto as he started giggling to himself over his childish logic, only increasing Hana's incredulity until she too began to giggle at his words, despite not having a clue what she was laughing about.

A tired-looking Ayame and Kiba soon crashed next to the downed duo, looking like they wanted to stay there and not move for a good long while. Kiba was panting and Ayame's face was burning red from exertion. Naruto simply grinned up at the sky, happy to have people to play with. The peaceful moment was broken by the voice of a boy that was neither Naruto or Kiba.

"So you finally stopped running around, but you take my favorite cloud watching spot. You troublesome people," said the bored voice from behind them, followed by the crunching of chips. Naruto turned his eyes upwards to see an upside down pair of boys around his age. One was kind of skinny and had spiky hair in a high ponytail, while the other had swirls on his cheeks and a bag of potato chips in hand. Naruto decided to take the initiative as he saw Hana open her mouth to say something that was probably not very nice.

"There's space, so lay down too!" exclaimed Naruto as he watched the spiky-haired boy sigh, but plop down anyways, joined shortly after by his rotund friend. Hana silently closed her mouth and shot Naruto another questioning glance but said nothing.

"I'm Chouji," offered up the boy with potato chips in hand as he loudly munched on his snack.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" exclaimed the blonde-haired ball of energy.

"My name's Inuzuka Hana," said the now tranquil girl as she swatted Kiba's head with her arm, "and this is my puppy of a brother, Kiba."

Said puppy just growled.

"I'm Ichiraku Ayame," said the still exhausted brown-haired girl with a small smile on her face. Instead of her usual waitress' outfit, Ayame was dressed in a pair of shorts and her school uniform shirt. It may be getting stained, but right now she couldn't care less as she happily lay on the grass staring upwards at the sky with a peaceful, lazy look on her face until she heard a loud, high-pitched voice.

"I'm Yamanaka Ino!" shouted a voice from beyond their group, causing Ayame to twitch. Only Naruto bolstered the energy to rise and see a blonde girl emerge from the sidewalk leading two other girls and a boy along as she plopped down and joined the group. Naruto waved at the group, making Ino grin and wave right back.

"Sorry we're late Ayame nee-san, I had to bring my new friend and her mom to play with us! I just met her when my daddy brought me to his boring council meeting because mommy was busy! We both like flowers and she wants me to teach her gardening with Naruto! Oh, and we brought her cousin along!" rambled the platinum blonde-haired girl excitedly. There was a good reason for Naruto being a suspected bastard of the Yamanaka clan, and it wasn't just the hair and eyes.

"Haruno Sakura," said the pink haired girl that had been led along by her best friend shyly as she laid out next to Ino while offering a small smile in the direction of Ayame, which was returned by the older girl. Ayame would never admit it aloud but she was much more fond of the quiet, shyer Sakura who somewhat reminded her of herself than she was of the more brash Ino; not that she disliked her by any means. She was just...a bit _too_ loud.

The last remaining girl looked a lot more hesitant to lay down, so she stopped before them all and bowed to the group, getting most of them to look at her oddly. This only seemed to make the girl more nervous but she glanced at the woman that came with the four children, who smiled encouragingly and gestured for her to go on.

"My name is Hyuuga Hinata, and it's a p-pleasure to meet you Chouji-san, Uzumaki-san, Hana-san, Kiba-san, and Ichiraku-san," said the girl demurely before looking back at her smiling mother who nodded at her, before she too laid down and stared at the clouds with the group.

The last boy gave the group a dull, hesitant stare before shrugging. "Hyuuga Neji," offered up the boy with a polite nod and laying back on the soft grass.

"Um! It's nice to meet you all!" shouted out an exuberant Naruto. To the young blonde, this was the most people, no, _most potential friends,_ he'd ever been near, and he wasn't about to let it slip through his fingers. Not that he was consciously thinking these thoughts.

"…Naruto!?" shouted out a girl's voice from beyond the trees, making Naruto sit up in surprise. It was clear that Kami had decided to bless him this day as he was dropping new friends for him out of the sky!

Trees and bushes rustled, but he soon saw the duo; Rock Lee and TenTen, or to him, the only people who were nice to him in the orphanage.

"Hey guys!" shouted Naruto with a smile and a wide wave of his arms. "Come on over!"

A quick jog later had the two staring in confusion at the relaxed group of kids. Lee was a kid with bushy eyebrows and had his hair in a braid. He wore a large oriental shirt that hung past his knees. Tenten appeared to have a similar taste for clothes as she too was dressed in oriental clothing; a sleeveless shirt and a loose pair of pants.

"What are you guys doing?" asked TenTen while Lee didn't even bother; he simply laid down where he stood and began introducing himself to the nearest person, who so happened to be the shy Sakura who was nervously returning his greetings while Ino mercilessly teased her from behind about being talked to by the weird kid, earning a light elbow from Ayame, making Ino turn around and smile sheepishly.

"Quit asking so many questions you troublesome girl," yawned out Shikamaru, earning him a smack to the head from Ayame and Hana; the others just stared in confusion, not knowing what that word meant.

TenTen shrugged at Shikamaru and laid out on an empty spot of grass, still looking upset.

"So, what were you two doing outside?" asked a curious Naruto.

"We were looking for you baka! You keep on going away for hours every day!" shouted out the ticked off TenTen, "We thought the nannies were being hard on you again," said TenTen more demurely while looking rather down; Naruto could tell that she was upset, although he was still not sure what abot.

"Nah, I was having fun with my friend Ayame-chan! She's really nice!" offered up Naruto as a sort of peace offering. Good intent, wrong thing to say.

"Why didn't you get us too Naruto? I thought we were friends also," said a slightly saddened Lee as he shifted his attention from Sakura back to one of the few people he considered a friend.

Naruto quickly scrambled for an answer; why _didn't_ he get them? They were the closest people he had in the orphanage and were the only reason he didn't outright detest the place; not that his mind processed all of these thoughts specifically; he just recognized that his two acquaintances who were more than simple acquaintances were important people to him and the guilt began flooded him.

"Sorry Lee, TenTen," apologized a contrite Naruto. TenTen stared at him from the corner of her eye before sighing, "It's okay, you big blonde doofus," making Naruto puff his cheeks out and cross his arms stubbornly, earning a series of giggles from Hinata and some guffaws from Chouji while the rest of the group chuckled at the blonde's expense, until it was too much for him too as he laughed along with everybody else.

They were so caught up in their amusement that they never noticed a shadow fall over them until a voice spoke out. "May I join you?"

Looking up, Naruto saw a boy dressed in a coat and sunglasses. He shrugged, smiled, and nodded, earning a nod from the silent boy as he laid out on the grass, picked up an ant, and watched it craw along his finger. "Aburame Shino," said the boy to the air as the group just stared at the sky mindlessly.

Just when the group was thinking that any more unexpected guests couldn't show up, they were proven wrong as a boy not much older than Ayame and Hana dressed in a flak jacket and with a Konoha headband on his head appeared in front of them in a gust of wind alongside a younger boy who looked like a doppelganger.

Giving the group a small, but polite smile, the boy asked, "May I leave my otouto here with you? I am off to depart on a mission and my parents are…preoccupied, at the moment." No one thought to really ask anything as they took in the sight of the boy dressed in ninja attire, surprise on their faces.

Looking expectantly at Naruto(for it was Naruto that had been doing the vast majority of the talking), he was given a nod and a smile, earning a grateful look from the preteen ninja as he disappeared in a Shunshin, leaving his younger brother to look around awkwardly and draw into himself.

"I…I'm Uchiha Sasuke. That was my nii-san Itachi. Thanks for letting me be here," offered up the boy with a somewhat timid smile.

Standing up, Naruto held out his fist. "No problem Sasuke," said the blonde with a grin on his face. Sasuke hesitated, but then offered up a more confident smile as he bumped Naruto's fist with his own. The two boys both had silly grins on their faces, happy to have made a friend. Naruto wasn't the only one to have had few friends so far in his life after all. Many friendships were formed on that hill that day, but with a bumping of fists, one of the most notable ones was born.

* * *

(1) Aside from some age-shifting, this is the point of divergence. Ayame remembers Naruto wanted to ask her something, and so Naruto asks her to spend time with him. That is the crux upon which this story rests on.

**People will act their age, act their station, and behave as believable people instead of handwaving massively to bash, act overly mature, bring up a solution to future issues that they should have no way of knowing, and so forth which is far too prevalent in fanfiction for my tastes. You'll notice that the little four year-olds aren't using big words they shouldn't know and that they're, you know, acting like four year-olds.**

**I'll point out some of the things I've done differently here if only to show my point on reasonable plot twisting by the author.**

**-Ayame's influence while playing with Naruto results in Naruto being seen as normal by other people sooner, as well as their children. As such, Naruto gets an early introduction to the Konoha 12(yes, I said 12, not 11)**

**-Hana gets drawn into Naruto's social circle by virtue of Ayame being there**

**-Sakura and Ino are busy idolizing Ayame as Konohamaru idolizes Naruto instead of chasing after Sasuke**

**-Naruto's biggest factor, his charismatic ability to influence people for the better, is working overtime here; he's bringing a bunch of pre-pubescent children into a cooperative friendship devoid of bullying. Thank Naruto for that, not the children being super-mature**

**-Hinata's mother is still alive, no Hyuuga Incident yet, no Uchiha Clan Massacre yet, the Orochimaru Incident has already gone down**

**Finally, I'd like to make it clear that all twelve of the Konoha 12 plus Ayame and Hana was more or less a stroke of luck with the stars aligning this one time only. No more spontaneous meeting of everybody; this is for plot purposes strictly and I find it believable for everybody to be at or around the playground at least once in their childhood.**

**Everything I mentioned up there is left to implication, but what the hell, I wanted to make a point and make it clear that I try to keep characters real.  
**

**As for my other Code Geass story, I'm going to have to place it on hold. I WAS planning on rebooting it, but I've realized I simply don't have the writing practice right now to deal with a universe as large and complicated as Code Geass'. That's not to say that I won't be giving it another run in the future; this is why this Naruto story is seeing birth.**

**I'd also like to warn you all that this story will feature a lot of third-person up until chapter 6, when the focus will shift mainly back to Naruto.  
**

**Lastly, great authors who have influenced my writing: Kenchi, zArkham, and did I mention Kenchi?  
**


	2. Birth of a Dream

AN: This is where we start really changing things ladies and gentlemen, so _please get excited_…or so it goes, according to Square Enix. Speaking of Square Enix, let's pretend SE's CEO is here right now to deliver my disclaimer.

**Yoichi Wada:** Please get excited for the announcement of the announcement that EMT0 does not own the rights to Naruto.

Thanks a lot buddy, for making no sense.

**A Better Friend**

**Chapter 2: Forging Inner Strength**

* * *

"Come on out you guys!" huffed Ino angrily. Silence met her demand. She was standing in the outskirts of Konoha in a thin forest, _supposedly_ playing hide and seek with her friends. The thing is, she had yet to find anybody after twenty minutes of searching and was starting to get fed up. Stomping her foot on the ground, she began to sulk as she heard muffled snickering coming from above her.

Looking up, she saw Naruto with his usual grin sitting on a high tree branch alongside Ayame, Chouji, and Kiba who were all sporting similar grins as Kiba tried futilely to muffle his laughter.

"I HEARD THAT INUZUKA!" shouted Ino angrily as she shot the four a death glare.

Her anger only made the others laugh all the harder, bringing an angry blush to Ino's face as she grinded her teeth. Chouji was chortling, Kiba was doubled over, and Naruto was leaning backwards with how hard he was laughing. Suddenly changing tactics, she tried to appeal to Ayame.

"Ayame-neechan, stop picking on me…" she whined while shooting her the puppy eyes, getting Ayame to slowly snap out of her giggle fit and elbow Naruto's side to make him stop picking on Ino. This caused him stop laughing abruptly and start yelling loudly as he fell over backwards due to the force and angle of the elbow.

With a yelp, the blonde fell and landed with a hard thud on the ground, his eyes swirling as the two boys on the branches laughed even harder, Ino began to chuckle, and Ayame blushed a bright red with embarrassment. Making her way to the trunk of the tree, she slowly began to descend using the branches as steps until she made it to the ground to meet Naruto, who had just sat up.

"Sorry Naruto-kun, I didn't mean to knock you over…" said the ramen waitress uneasily as she watched Naruto roll his limbs and winced as she heard them crack. Shaking his head to clear the haze, Naruto grumbled a bit before shooting her a smile and a nod; she was forgiven.

Ayame smiled back as she turned to the other two boys who were making their way down from the trees, still laughing the entire while. "You two should really stop laughing, Naruto could have been seriously hurt!" she scolded the two, assuming the role of mother hen(and dearly wishing Hana was here to teach her brother a lesson).

"He's fine, isn't he?" asked Kiba rhetorically as he began to pick his nose, earning a scandalized look from Ino who then turned to Ayame, "Can we go get something to eat now, Ayame nee-san? I'm hungry after running around all day looking for you guys," she moaned, mentally protesting their prank on her. She shot an annoyed glance at Chouji who had pulled out a bag of chips and started munching away as though to spite her(at least in her mind, he did).

"Say yes Ayame-chan, say yes! Then you can take us all to Ichiraku's!" said Naruto with a devious smile on his face until Ayame smacked him on the back of the head. "You know we can't always eat there dummy, now come on, I've got to drop these guys off, their parents are holding it on my head to make sure they're fine," said Ayame with a slight frown and a grumble from the rest of the group.

Due to the young age of most of her friends, she and Hana had been more or less charged with ensuring their safety by their parents, although Uchiha Itachi had helped out the one or two times that he had hung around and stayed to play with Sasuke and the rest. She even suspected that the clans were secretly sending one of their shinobi to keep an eye on them and make sure they didn't get into trouble. The fact that many of them were clan heirs only made the situation all the more frustrating; Inoichi Yamanaka had been hard to convince, and Hiashi Hyuuga had been prepared to say no immediately until his now sickly wife convinced him otherwise.

That was another big issue that had been plaguing the unofficial group of friends; Hinata's mother was gravely ill. She had been more or less the patron sponsor of their little band of misfits since it formed slightly over a year ago and had taken the time to play and even teach them when she had the time until recently. About one month ago, she had fallen seriously ill after fighting on and off sickness for the past year due to the complications of giving birth to her second daughter, Hanabi, and had yet to make any noticeable improvements as her health had slowly deteriorated. Understandably, all of the children were upset; even the ones that had only met her a few times in the last year and a half.

That was one of the more curious aspects of their unofficial group; they rarely had more than half of the children that had shown up the very first day show up since they were all subject to different schedules and responsibilities, even as five-year olds. Private lessons with their parents, clan duties, an inability to sneak out of the orphanage every day; there were a wide host of reasons why they rarely all met, although Naruto and Ayame were always present due to their free time(and their combined puppy eyes aimed at Teuchi). Naruto hadn't seen Neji, Sakura, or Shino in over two weeks, for that matter.

Walking down the street, the five children rambled and talked about anything and everything; Ayame, being the oldest, as well as the most level-headed, served as a moderating influence on them and all of the children viewed her as a neutral party. The fact that she was perfectly alright with wailing on her best friend certainly burned that thought into their subconscious minds. Whenever one of them picked on another, she intervened. When one was feeling down, she(and Naruto) were there to cheer them up. It was amazing how thoroughly the twelve little gakis had wormed their ways into her heart.

Running a bit ahead of them, Naruto ran in front of the Ichiraku Ramen stand that they had to pass in order to get to Chouji's clan compound and raised his fist. "Ayame-chan, come on, we're _right here!_ We're in the base, now let's go collect the goods!_"_ he shouted with a foxy grin.

"Naruto, for the last time, we are friends, not a cartel. And, no," said Ayame with a tired shake of her head. It wasn't the first time Naruto had tried to play(at least she hoped he was) pretend that their group was a Yakuza.

"Bu-"

"No."

"Come o-"

"Naruto, how many bowls did you eat today for lunch?" asked Ayame before he could continue, coming to a stop before him with her hands on her hips as the other three backed away. Ayame was not one to be trifled with.

"Five!" shouted a gleeful Naruto proudly, until he sensed something…_off_. Opening his eyes, he saw that Ayame was standing straight in front of him. Looking up to meet her gaze, making his mouth turn into an 'O' as he realized what was about to happen.

Beating her to the punch, he lowered his head and said, "Sorry, Ayame-chan," faking remorse admirably for a five-year old.

Nodding her head in satisfaction, she led him away by the hand as he started to sob, fake anime tears running down his face due to being denied his ramen, the other three children chuckling behind him as they followed the comical duo.

"I still say we should totally be a Yakuza," whispered Kiba to a grinning Chouji.

"I heard that, Kiba," said Ayame without turning around.

"I thought she was a civilian, not a master ninja," grumbled Kiba to himself.

"_Kiba_," said Ayame warningly, a shroud of malevolent intent hovering around her as she continued to walk, forcefully leading a terrified Naruto who turned around in a stumbling panic and rapidly began to tell Kiba to stop now while he still could as silently as possible while waving an arm around wildly.

"With that attitude, we could totally make Ayame nee-chan our boss, she's scarier than my mom and sister combined," continued on the Inuzuka boy foolishly. Poor, poor Kiba, having never been exposed to Ayame on a mission, could simply not stop talking.

An Oni mask appeared behind Ayame's head as she slowly turned to meet the now nervous Kiba. Her eyes were hidden behind her bangs as she offered him a disturbingly sweet smile.

"What have I told you about you and Naruto's crazy plan to turn us into a Yakuza?" asked Ayame sweetly, the oppressive aura's pressure and magnitude rocketing.

"To be quiet and to never bring it up again, I'm sorry ma'am, I won't bring it up again pleaseisweardontkillmeplease ," uttered a terrified Kiba as his two walking companions took three big steps back away from the dead man walking.

As though the magic words had been said, the oppressive aura banished completely as Ino and Chouji sweatdropped at the sight; Ayame was smiling sweetly at a still terrified Kiba as though he wasn't about to be utterly destroyed five seconds ago.

"That's right; I hope you can keep that in mind Kiba-kun," she said, a smile still on her face as she turned and led her utterly terrified best friend by the hand as they resumed their march to the Akimichi district.

* * *

After dropping off her three charges, she and Naruto took their time walking back to the Ichiraku stand in a comfortable silence at a leisurely pace. Well, she did. Naruto continued to bounce around as he always did, but then, that was just always Naruto's leisurely pace.

As they passed the Academy building, a thought struck Naruto. Turning to Ayame, he asked, "Ne, Ayame-chan, why did you get so upset when Kiba mentioned you being a ninja?" making her tense.

Ayame refused to meet Naruto's curious gaze as they continued to trek on towards the Ichiraku stand. Just as Naruto was about to ask again, she began to slowly speak.

"It's…really nothing, Naruto-kun, I just…I just don't like the thought of being a ninja," said Ayame quietly as she continued to think, a lost look on her face. It was clear that she wasn't really paying attention to Naruto's reaction to her words, which was flabbergasted disbelief.

"You don't want to be a ninja Ayame-chan!? But why? Being a ninja's so cool! You get so much respect, you make money, and best of all, you get to do cool jutsus!" said the boy excitedly, unaware of the discomfort he was forcing upon the young girl.

"In fact," continued on the tactless blonde as he turned to face her, "You've been more sad recently. The last time you were this sad was when Neji, Tenten-chan, and Lee entered the Academy. What's wrong, Ayame-chan?" asked the blonde, making Ayame tense in shock, nervousness, and admittedly, a small bit of resentment. She was surprised that the blonde had noticed her somber mood those days; she had figured letting him have some extra ramen would have kept him ignorant of her frustrations.

In spite of being his loud and rambunctious self, the blonde was mindful enough to have noticed that Ayame had been down when Lee, Tenten, and Neji had all begun their academy training nine months ago. He kept quiet though, as her mood had improved and had shrugged it off, but her sadness had recently returned. He didn't know what was troubling his best friend, but he had a nagging gut feeling that it had to do with the ninja academy and he intended to find out.

"It's just…" began Ayame, "…It's just that I didn't sign up to be a ninja because my dad didn't want me to be one. I'm…I'm afraid that once you all become ninja, I'll be left behind. Even Sakura's signing up and she's the daughter of civilians. I don't want to lose my friends once they're all beyond me," said the brown-haired girl remorsefully, her face downcast and eyes hidden by her hair.

Ayame felt her hand wrapped in two smaller hands and looked up. Naruto's sincere grin filled her visage, his eyes bright and shining.

"Ayame-chan, don't worry, we'll never leave you behind. Ichiraku Ramen is our home base, and you're the boss. We CAN'T forget you, even when we're out on missions, because you'll always be our Oyabun(1)," said Naruto with a foxy, sincere smile.

Ayame was torn between smacking him and crushing him into a hug; she knew that what he was saying was meant to cheer her up in his own way, but at the same time, the Yakuza jokes were getting just a little bit stale for her.

"You dummy," she chuckled lightly as she felt her eyes become wet. Facing forward so that Naruto wouldn't see, she kept hold of his hand tightly as she guided him back to the restaurant, a lone tear trailing down her cheek as she sighed in relief and sadness on the inside; the less she burdened Naruto with the truth about her own troubles the better.

* * *

The first of many tragedies struck a week later. On the 9th of October, Hyuuga Hitomi was pronounced dead. Hiashi had locked himself away from the world for over a week before reemerging as a ghost of the man he had been before. While always serious, he had a certain caring demeanor that had been reserved for his wife and child. With his wife gone, what remained was a hard shell of a man. Despite his change in demeanor, he had not made any moves to isolate Hinata and had even allowed the 12 children his wife had taken under her wing to attend the funeral.

Today was the day of the funeral; representatives of all of the major clans of Konoha were present, as well as the Third Hokage and his two advisers. Hinata sat on a tatami mat next to her father and the crib that held her baby sister as tears streamed silently down her face and onto her kimono.

Ayame morbidly observed that it was almost as though the young Hyuuga was bleeding tears. Neji was sitting in the row behind Hinata, his head bowed in sadness at the departure of his aunt the Hyuuga matriarch, sitting next to his father who had his head bowed down.

The other 12 children were seated silently near the back, not that they were complaining. All twelve were grieving in their own way; Ino, Sakura, Ayame, Naruto, and Lee were openly sobbing. Hana looked on with tears in her eyes as Kiba stared stonily at the ground, his hand held so tightly that blood could be seen. Shikamaru was silent but his eyes shone with tears that had started to leak from his eyes, while Chouji was without any food in his hands and his face paint in disarray; his sad tears had managed to smear the paint in a trail down his cheeks. Tenten and Sasuke were quiet and stared at the ground in clear sadness, and Shino sat stiffly, head bowed in sorrow.

Even Itachi had taken the time to attend the funeral, sitting next to his brother. He would have appeared unfazed were it not for the glassy look in his eyes.

It was Naruto's first time attending a funeral, and it was the last one he wished he ever had to attend, reflected the blonde morosely as Ayame silently escorted him and the other two orphaned children to the Ichiraku stand where they would then depart back to the orphanage.

The sight of the Hyuuga Matriarch's body going up in flames until it burned into ashes was still haunting him. Naruto morosely wondered if this is what had happened to his parents, if he ever had any. As they neared the stand, Naruto was struck by the reason Teuchi most likely did not want his daughter being a ninja.

Jiji had warned him that ninja tended to leave short lives, and he couldn't help but wonder, for the first time, if his choice of career wouldn't come back to haunt him in the future, or if he'd be seeing his friend's bodies burning some day too.

Waving goodbye to Ayame, the three orphans silently walked back to what served as their refuge; Naruto, despite having just turned six that very day, already understood subconsciously that the orphanage was not his ' home', not where he was unwanted and poorly treated.

As they stepped in through the gates, the frown he had been carrying since he walked out of the funeral worsened as he thought about Hinata; how must she feel right now? She had lost the person who was without a doubt closest to her, her role model, her mother.

Naruto shivered at the thought of losing the closest person he thought of as family; Jiji. Silently making a pledge to ensure that the old man lived as long as possible no matter what it takes, Naruto trailed off at the staircase and waved Tenten and Lee goodnight as he stepped into his small, cramped room.

It was painted chalk white and devoid of most things except for a small bed and a tiny desk where he placed his clothes and practiced his reading and writing. Naruto frowned; it was the most sterile place he had ever been in, and not even the hospital he had once had to visit when Jiji forced him to get a check-up felt so _empty_ to him. He hated his room; it was one of the few things he consciously acknowledged his dislike of.

Laying down on the uncomfortable mattress and throwing the sheets over himself, Naruto let sleep take him away from his uneasy thoughts.

* * *

**_Later That Night_**

* * *

Naruto sat up with a sharp gasp and a scream.

'_Jiji, Ayame-chan! Teuchi, Tenten, Kiba everybody!_' his mind screamed in panic as he mentally relived his horrible nightmare against his will. Crawling out of his bed, Naruto sat on top and pulled his legs into his body and wrapped his arms around himself, shivering in cold sweat. That nightmare…that nightmare had felt _so real_. He could see the lifeless faces of his friends and his surrogate grandfather laying on a great funeral pyre as hundreds of small yet vicious-looking foxes pranced around their bodies, all the while a great evil cackling went on in the background. The sky had been blood red and the ground the color of ashes, painting the orphanage where all of the bodies laid piled up in a red glow. Then worse followed.

The foxes had all ceased movement and had breathed in simultaneously before they combusted, lighting their bodies up into a great bonfire as Naruto screamed his fear and the evil cackling rose in volume throughout the air. The worst part however, was when he heard the screams of his friends, their throats straining as they shouted their agony while they burned to ashes. Naruto had covered his ears and curled into a ball as the cackling turned into uproarious, insane laughter.

Looking outside through his tiny window, he could still see the moon high in the sky. He grasped for his blanket and curled up into a ball as his mind continued to relive the horrible dream. Naruto was in for a long night.

* * *

_**The Next Morning**_

* * *

It was a shaken and tired Naruto that stepped quietly into the Ichiraku Ramen stand the next day. He had shadows under his eyes and his eyes had little of their usual shine.

Without so much as a greeting, he sat down and quietly asked for a bowl of ramen, making Teuchi snap his eyes and fully take in Naruto's sorry condition. He knew, of course, that he had been shaken by the funeral; Ayame had told him as much, but it was still an alien concept to see the hyperactive blonde so downtrodden.

"This one's on the house today kid," said Teuchi quietly as he placed a bowl in front of Naruto. Naruto looked up, shot him a weak smile and a thumbs up, and began to slowly munch on his noodles.

Ayame soon went around the counter and slumped on the seat next to him, barely eating any of her food in the bowl in front of her as she played with her noodles, also having slept poorly due to her sadness.

Ten minutes later and seeing that they were still down, the ramen chef was beginning to rethink allowing his daughter to attend the funeral. Making up his mind, he grabbed his daughter's attention by taking away the bowl in front of her. "Consider today a free day, go and have fun with Naruto. I'll see you back here later, musume(2)."

Nodding her head at her dad's word, Ayame hopped off her seat and grabbed Naruto's hand. Nodding, he left his ramen and uttered a small thanks to Teuchi, making him smile, before he did a doubletake and stared in shock at the half-full bowl left behind by Naruto.

The two children had decided to go to the park and see if anybody had been present, but nobody had shown up that day. Shrugging, Naruto took charge as he led Ayame through the streets of Konoha. After having mindlessly wandered around for a half hour, they stopped and sat down in front of the Academy, leaning against the its stone walls while still holding hands to silently comfort each other.

"…I know why I need to be a ninja now, Ayame-chan," said Naruto silently. Ayame stared at him with wide eyes as she felt her eyes tear up. Naruto didn't so much as glance up as he shot the building in front of him, a dango shop, a glassy-eyed stare.

"I need to be the strongest shinobi I can be so that this doesn't happen. Hinata's mom shouldn't have died. She was young, and nice. It isn't fair. And I'm scared. Scared that somebody else is gonna die," continued the blonde as his expression hardened, his thoughts focusing on the elderly Hokage. Ayame was at a loss for words as the tears began to cascade.

"I had a dream that you all died," said Naruto matter-of-factly, although his voice sounded devoid of life. Ayame's gaze turned wide and scared as she heard Naruto drone on in a tone and with an attitude that was nothing like his usual cheery persona. She began to shake, but the blonde still didn't notice with how strongly he was gripping her hand and how focused he was by the memory of his dreams. "I won't let that happen though," stated the blonde as some life came back to his eyes. "I'll be strong enough to make it so that it never happens. You, Jiji, Teuchi, and everybody else will be safe, I'll be the wall that stops everything, even death!" shouted Naruto, making Ayame move in a blink of an eye.

**SLAP**

Naruto turned his gaze onto Ayame with wide eyes as he stared at the offending hand that had slapped him. Ayame's hand was still fixed at the same point of contact where she had slapped Naruto, hard. Her shoulders were heaving and her breathing broken up by short sobs.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR!" shouted out Naruto as he angrily stood up, glaring at his best friend.

"IF YOU BECOME A NINJA…YOU'LL DIE!" shouted Ayame angrily as she continued to sob, "YOU'LL DIE…just like Kaa-san died," finished Ayame as her will gave out and she folded into herself, sobbing unashamedly.

Naruto was at a loss. He never knew this. He had no idea; he just thought that Ayame didn't have a mom just like he didn't have one, or a dad. He'd never thought to question, never thought to ask because he was an orphan and thought that it was a part of life to not always have parents.

Ayame suddenly stood up, eyes red and swollen as she continued to shake and sob.

"If you want to die, fine! Go and die! Go be a ninja, when they bring you back dead, I won't be sorry!" screamed Ayame with an angry red glare, instantly regretting it as she saw Naruto's worried expression go dim.

Standing up, he looked down, his hair covering his eyes, as Ayame hesitantly reached out to him, ready to apologize immediately.

"If that's what you want, Ayame-chan, then fine…I'll just have to go and die," said Naruto in a neutral tone as he turned away from her outstretched hand and began to walk towards the Hokage Tower.

Ayame's strength deserted her as her hand dropped limply to the ground. She watched the boy who was her brother and best friend all in one walk away from her, as her tears began to fall harder.

Her face scrunched up tightly as she desperately tried to control herself, but before she had even realized what she was doing, she was up and running back towards the stall, away from Naruto, her sobs getting louder and louder as she cried in regret and for her best friend's foolhardy words.

She didn't see Naruto's own tears begin to cascade as he walked into the Hokage Tower. Shivering, he went up to receptionist and whispered out shakily that he needed to see the old man.

By the time the Hokage had descended from his office after hearing that Naruto was crying, he quickly became worried as he saw the blond missile heading toward him. Reaching down, he scooped up Naruto into a gentle hug as he grasped on tightly to him and began to sob into his robes.

"J-Jiji….I don't want you to die, Jiji!" shouted a muffled Naruto hysterically into the Hokage's robe.

The Hokage gently rubbed Naruto's back as he shuddered and sobbed. He should have known that Naruto, as a five year-old, was too young to be attending a funeral. Sighing softly, he carried Naruto up the stairs to his office, where he sat him down on the sofa up against one of the walls while he sat down next to him.

"Tell me what's wrong, Naruto-kun, you should know that I won't be dying any time soon," lied the Hokage through his teeth. He knew that he would be lucky to get another decade on this earth with his smoking habits. But then, Onoki was still alive and he was even older than him, so who knew?

Hiruzen listened attentively, calmly at first, having expected to hear Naruto's description of Hyuuga Hitomi's funeral, but with growing dread and worry as Naruto detailed his dream.

"-So I'm scared, Jiji. You're the only person I got, I don't want you to die," rambled Naruto as his face scrunched up and tears began to fall again. He absentmindedly wiped his nose on Hiruzen's robes, not that he minded or even cared at the moment. His thoughts were first and foremost on calling Jiraiya back to check on the seal, and secondly on ensuring that Naruto was alright.

"I don't want you to worry Naruto-kun, but you need to understand that death is just as much a part of life as life is a part of death. You can't have one without the other," said Hiruzen gravely, "-But believe me, I'll be here until you're ready to take this job from me and I can retire in peace," joked Hiruzen as he tried to lighten the mood, before he returned to his previously serious demeanor as he tried to impart some wisdom on the boy.

"Death will come to us all in time, and it's not always fair when it strikes, but only through bravery, resolve, and relying on others can we come above death and not let death rule us," said Hiruzen as he reached for the pipe in his pocket and placed it in his mouth.

Naruto wrinkled his nose at the smell that followed the old pipe before he scrunched his face up in thought.

"So you're saying that a whole buncha people working together can beat the Shinigami?" he asked, misunderstanding the Hokage's intent. He was already picturing him and his friends coming together to wail on the embodiment of death until Hiruzen interrupted his mental comedy.

"Not quite, Naruto-kun," corrected the Hokage with amusement at the blonde's imagination, already having a good idea of how the blonde had taken his words solely by looking at his face.

"What I'm trying to say is that only when you have something to protect, something you value more than your own life, can you find the strength to overcome fear of death. That is what the Will of Fire is all about," finished Hiruzen as he wrapped an arm around the still uneasy boy.

"The Will of Fire?" asked Naruto, having only heard the old man mention it in passing before today.

"The Will of Fire is the guiding message upon which this village was built upon by Hashirama Senju. It's a philosophy that has been handed from the Sage of the Six Paths onwards onto the shinobi of Konoha. It is the belief that the village must be protected for the future generations, that all of our efforts and our love must be invested into the strengthening of Konoha from those who wish her and Hi no Kuni harm," lectured Sarutobi from his heart. The words of his idol were, after all, the philosophy through which he ruled as Hokage.

Naruto truly didn't understand everything that was said, but he did get the gist of it. Forgetting his earlier woes, he nodded his head and shot the elderly Hokage a small smile, gaining a warm smile from his grandfather in turn at seeing the blonde snap out of his funk.

"I'll do it," he said, crossing his arms and nodding his head resolutely, face stuck in a foxy grin.

The Hokage quirked his eyebrow at the boy, wondering exactly what he meant.

"I'll do it! I'll follow the Will of Fire! I'll defend everybody in Konoha with everything I've got!" he shouted, as Hiruzen felt his mirth overtake him. He laughed, and gave Naruto a strong hug, as he continued to laugh at the boy's bravado and promise.

"I know you will Naruto-kun, I know you will," he said with complete and utter honesty in his voice. Uzumaki Naruto was a one-of-a-kind child, that was for certain.

"Say, Jiji," said Naruto, interrupting the Hokage's musings.

"What is it Naruto-kun?"

"Can you sign me up for the Academy now? You said no the last five times I asked," said Naruto with a squinty glare at the Hokage.. Hiruzen sighed, but then recalled that there were only two months until the Academy classes began for his year group, so shooting his surrogate grandson a grin, he nodded, earning a cheer and a wide smile from Naruto.

"I'll get the paperwork filed for you by tomorrow morning," offered the Hokage as he set the boy back down on the sofa.

"Jiji? I've got one more question," said Naruto as he relaxed on the couch and leant back.

"Yes, Naruto?" asked Hiruzen, wondering what else the boy could possibly want to ask about the Academy that he hadn't already asked him before.

"Who's the Sage of the Six Paths?" he asked, curiosity shining out of his blue eyes.

* * *

"The Sage…The Sage of the Six Paths is the man who created the ninja arts!" proclaimed Sarutobi as he pulled up one of the chairs in front of his desk next to the sofa in order to let Naruto lay down. "He is the man who both defeated and became what could be considered the father of Kyuubi. He is the ultimate shinobi," declared Hiruzen, eyes glowing in reminiscence. The Sage of the Six Paths had been, by far, the favorite subject of study of The Professor in his younger days and one of his role models alongside the Senju brothers.

Naruto's eyes widened at first, but then narrowed.

"What do you mean he's the father of the Kyuubi?" asked Naruto. Sarutobi was beginning to regret mentioning the tailed beasts, but mentally shrugged, figuring that Naruto had no way of making the connection with what resided in the seal on his stomach.

"Before the Kyuubi even existed, there was a monster called the Juubi, or, the Ten-Tailed Beast. Legend says that it created the world…and that it shall also destroy it. It was the Sage of the Six Paths who would come to defeat it."

Sarutobi paused as he considered his next words very carefully, "He separated the monster in two, sealing the spirit here on Earth, and sealed its body using his legendary Rinnegan, or Samsara Eye, to turn the Juubi's body into the Moon and launched into the sky."

Naruto's mouth was hanging open as he stared in amazement at the Hokage. He couldn't _believe_ _it!_ The Rinnegan sounded SO cool! The Sage of the Six Paths sounded like the most badass guy ever! Sarutobi smiled at Naruto's amazement; he had been much the same when he first head this tale and had devoted years to studying the Sage of the Six Paths, or what was known of him.

"The Sage of the Six Paths then took his quest one step farther; he split the soul of the Juubi into nine separate beings in order to weaken it through the use of the Rinnegan. This is how the nine bijū were created."

"Wait, Jiji, what's a bijū," interrupted Naruto with curiosity. He was sitting cross legged on the couch and giving Hiruzen his rapt attention, making Hiruzen feel somewhat happy on the inside. It had been a long time since he had taught, despite his nickname.

"A bijū is one of the nine tailed beast, there is the Ichibi, Nibi, Sanbi, Yonbi, and so on, at last, until-"

"Kyuubi," breathed out Naruto, amazed at the power of the Sage of the Six Paths.

"Exactly, Naruto-kun. He is considered a hero, almost a god by all shinobi due to his achievements; it was him that first discovered and mastered chakra," finished Sarutobi as he saw Naruto's awestruck expression never waver.

"That settles it!" shouted Naruto, causing Sarutobi to sweatdrop. A new declaration of goals seemed to be happening on an hourly basis, if this rate was to be kept up. He couldn't help but muse curiously on who the blonde had picked up his odd habit from.

"I'll become Hokage by becoming the new Sage of the Six Paths and becoming even greater than him!" shouted Naruto, a fire burning in his azure eyes as he swore mentally to fulfill his new dream.

"That way, no one, not Ayame-chan, not Hinata-chan, and not you Jiji, will ever die!" said the young boy with conviction.

Sarutobi was glad he kept his mouth shut on the fact that the Rinnegan could supposedly even reverse death; no need to take Naruto's new fervor to confront and beat death to the next level.

He could even get the idea to revive his parents stuck in his head, and that was not only technically impossible, but a cruelty; Naruto obtaining the Rinnegan was an idea that was in and of itself laughable.

Sarutobi was ready to crush his surrogate grandson's dreams, as much as it would pain him to do so, until he stopped. And contemplated. And thought some more.

'_Well, he IS_ _an Uzumaki_,' thought the old man as he weighed the pros and cons of going through with what he was contemplating.

Naruto continued to stare at the old man expectantly, as though awaiting a confirmation of his goals by the person he cared for most.

'_While I don't want to tell him everything just yet about the Uzumaki Clan, I can start telling him some things…_' thought Sarutobi to himself as he made up his mind.

"I believe that you can, Naruto-kun, for a variety of reasons," said Hiruzen with a warm smile, causing Naruto to swell up with pride at his surrogate grandfather's words.

"Let me tell you another story about the Sage of the Six Paths. He was a man that had a wife and two children. The name of his wife is something of a lost secret that I learned about after many years of research. His wife's name was Akanui Uzumaki," said Sarutobi with a serious expression on his face.

Naruto's eyes widened comically. "Are you saying I'm related to the Sage of the Six Paths!?" shouted Naruto as he fell off the couch in shock and landed with a thump. Sarutobi stifled his laughter and picked up Naruto by the armpits and set him back on the couch.

"Yes, you are, for you see, because the Sage of the Six Paths reportedly had no surname, his children's first names were Uzumaki Uchiha and Uzumaki Senju. Naruto's eyes widened at his words, but continued to drink in the old Kage's words like a thirsty man in Kaze no Kuni.

"His two children had a falling out of sorts, and in order to differentiate themselves from each other, had their children adopt their first names as their clan names," continued Sarutobi.

"So you're saying that I'm distantly related to Sasuke and Itachi-nii?" asked Naruto with a curiosity shining in his eyes.

"Possibly. You see, the Uchiha ancestor was more…estranged from his mother, but the Senju ancestor was very close to her. She's the only person in our historical archives to have had the surname Uzumaki at the time, so this is where history gets a bit murky, and simply becomes legend," said Hiruzen, trying to impart the fact that what he was going to say next was a _legend_, and not a verifiable fact.

"The legend goes that the Senju ancestor married a woman in what is today Hi no Kuni and settled down there. The legend goes that his first sons carried the surname Uzumaki, due to being born before the schism between the two Uzumaki brothers, and founded Uzu no Kuni off the coast of Hi no Kuni, while other children of his carried his new surname, Senju."

"You're saying there are Uzumaki out there!?" exclaimed Naruto excitedly as he bounced in his seat. The very thought of there being family out there for him had the blonde giddy and excited.

He stared anxiously at the old Kage as said Kage wondered how best to deliver the news that would surely disappoint his surrogate grandson.

"We'll get there soon enough, it's a part of this tale. Just wait, alright Naruto-kun?" asked Sarutobi, mentally crossing his fingers that the boy could be placated for just a bit longer as he scrambled on the best way to deliver the news.

"Fine," sulked the blonde boy as he continued to give the old man his full attention.

"Anyways, the Uchiha never married a person that carries the surname Uzumaki due to seeing them as an extension of their rivals, the Senju clan, so to answer your question, you are very distantly related to Uchiha Sasuke," said the Sandaime, "-If and only if your ancestor Akenai was the last Uzumaki. That would mean that all Uzumaki, and by extension you, are distantly related to the Uchiha clan."

The Sandaime cleared his throat before continuing, "The Senju and Uzumaki clans continued to mix blood every few generations and were almost always aligned politically, sharing in the philosophy of the Will of Fire. When Hashirama Senju united the clan territories of what today make up Hi no Kuni and brought them together to make the first ninja village, Konohagakure, Uzu politely declined the offer to become a part of Hi no Kuni and instead formed Uzushiogakure, citing being an already well-established nation for centuries, but pledging their support and establishing an alliance, even dispatching several powerful shinobi of theirs to help fight off invading clans from what is today Mizu no Kuni," said Sarutobi as he stood up and walked over to the map on his wall.

"You may not know this Naruto-kun, but historically, ninja clans ruled these lands and fought back and forth over territory ruthlessly. The Senju clan's traditional territories were the peninsula off of which Uzu no Kuni laid as well as what is the territory which today makes our border with Yu no Kuni. The Uchiha, on the other hand, are the ones who controlled what is today Konoha and its hinterland," Sarutobi said as he pointed out each individual location to Naruto who was raptly paying attention.

The Third hesitated before he decided to charge on ahead, "During the Second Shinobi World War, the land of Uzushiogakure was destroyed by a combined force of Kumo, Mizu, and Yugakure ninjas. The Uzumaki fought bravely until the end until they were overwhelmed, and the Uzumaki scattered to the four corners of the elemental nations," stated the old Kage sadly, his face wrinkled in a thoughtful frown.

"The invading ninja salted the earth and poisoned the one fresh source of water on the island, making it uninhabitable. Konoha was unable to help our ally…I failed Uzu, Naruto-kun, for I was the Hokage at the time that this happened," said Hiruzen slowly, hoping to Kami that the blonde didn't lash out at him over this.

"I made sure to avenge the fallen; Konoha won the war and sacked Yugakure, turning it into a shadow of the former power that it was, but at a great cost," at this, Hiruzen bowed his head in shame. Truthfully, he never stopped feeling the shame of failing Konoha's one true ally. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun."

Naruto was shaking, his eyes hidden as he gazed downwards into his lap. Hiruzen was afraid to reach out to Naruto and receive the backlash he was sure he would get from his surrogate grandson for failing his extended family. Then Naruto surprised him by raising his head and smiling at him with water eyes, looking at him straight in the eye with the innocence that had always been there. "I guess that just means we were so awesome if it took three villages to take us down, huh Jiji?" said Naruto with a weak smile.

Sarutobi grabbed the boy in a hug as said boy began to sob quietly for the family he would never know. It hurt Sarutobi to know that he couldn't share what he knew of Naruto's mother with him, but he knew that it would only lead to problems. Instead, he continued with his impromptu history lesson.

"What I'm saying Naruto-kun, is that you're a direct descendent of the Sage of the Six Paths. You've got the blood to become a great shinobi; now you must harness and forge that potential with the Will of Fire to become the greatest ninja you can be," said Sarutobi gently as he felt Naruto once more wipe his snotty nose on his robes. These would have to get washed.

Nodding his head, Naruto shot the Hokage a smile. "I'm going to be greater than the Rikudo Sennin and then I'm going to take your hat!"

* * *

Oyabun: Japanese word for 'Boss', used by Konohamaru, Naruto's clones, and Naruto when talking to Gamabunta

Rikudo Sennin: The Sage of Six Paths

Musume: Daughter

Here are the village and country translations:

Uzu no Kuni: Land of Whirlpools

Mizu no Kuni: Land of Water

Hi no Kuni: Land of Fire

Yu no Kuni: Land of Hot Water

Konohagakure: Hidden Leaf Village

Uzushiogakure: Hidden Whirlpool Village

**I was reasonably pleased with the reception I've gotten so far. Hopefully this whets your appetite for more and leaves a few hints to future developments, but remember, don't assume anything. I'm a bad bad man who loves his plot twists.**

**Review, those help me get things out faster(No, this is not a threat. Seriously)!**


	3. Home Smells Like Ramen

AN: And so it continues. It's really great having that 'new story' kick which helps make an author want to write and write about their newest story. It's certainly working its magic here. Enjoy.

As a head's up, Naruto just turned 6 years old and Ayame's 10; remember that Hinata's mother died a day before his birthday on October 9th.

* * *

**A Better Friend**

**Chapter 3: The Tale of Ichiraku**

* * *

Naruto blearily stared at a warm cream-colored ceiling, groaning slightly. His back felt a bit cramped and he couldn't feel his right arm from the awkward position. Yawning widely, he slowly got up and looked around, and saw that he was still in the Hokage's office. The Third was seated at his desk, going over paperwork when he looked up and gave the young blonde a small smile.

"Rest well, Naruto-kun?" asked the elderly Hokage as he saw Naruto vigorously rub his eyes to get rid of his sleepiness.

"Not really Jiji," said Naruto through a yawn as he tried to cover his mouth. "What are you up to so early?" questioned the curious boy as he fully took in the sight of the old man hard at work.

Standing up in curiosity, he walked over to see that the old Kage was currently placing his personal seal over a piece of paper that had his picture tacked on."Why is my photo on there Jiji?"

Hiruzen continued to fill out the form as he answered Naruto, "Remember what we discussed yesterday Naruto-kun? This is your academy application; I've placed my seal on it, and seeing as I'm the one who admits all academy applicants, consider yourself a ninja in training," he finished with a warm smile as he looked up from the papers to see Naruto's beaming face.

"YES, thank you Jiji! Thank you thank you thankyouthankyou, I won't let you down!" said the happy boy as he jumped up and down excitedly. Turning uncharacteristically focused, he gave the Hokage a simple smile.

"I still remember my promise, I'll beat everyone and become the greatest ninja ever to protect Konoha!" shouted the blonde with his fist in the air, looking as determined...well, as determined as any six year old could possibly manage.

Chuckling at the boy's enthusiasm, Hiruzen was struck by an idea that would indulge Naruto while also getting a taste of just how talented he was. If he wanted to become so strong that he could rival the Sage, he'd need to at the very least match some of the most talented young shinobi the village had to offer in terms of growth; Itachi, Kakashi, Shisui, and even his own father.

"How about this Naruto-kun? I'll let you in on a little secret that all ninja must know in order to become great, and it's something that you normally wouldn't learn until the second year of the academy, but first you have to answer some questions. Do you know what chakra is?" asked Hiruzen as he stood up from his desk and walked over to the young boy, who had gone to lay back on the couch.

Naruto scratched his head in thought until he shot the Hokage a rueful grin, "Nope."

Not surprised in the least, the Hokage carried on with his impromptu lesson.

"Chakra is the energy shinobi use in order to use jutsu and is essentially the life force of every living being. It is a combination of physical energy and mental or spiritual energy that manifests itself in six innate base forms, those being neutral chakra, and the five base elements: Katon, Suiton, Futon, Doton, and Raiton. Using chakra, shinobi are able to shoot fireballs, cast illusions, and stick to surfaces, amongst other abilities, and it was the Sage of the Six Paths that first discovered how to use chakra. Do you understand so far, Naruto-kun?"

Hiruzen knew he had gone in a _bit_ more detailed than was probably appropriate for Naruto's age, so stopping to clear up any questions was probably the best course of action. Said blonde's face was scrunched up in thought as he analyzed the old Kage's words, making the old Kage marvel at the fact that Naruto had more or less managed to follow along with his surprise history lesson.

"What kind of chakra did the Sage use Jiji? You just said there's different kinds but you never said which kind the Sage used," questioned the blonde, confusion apparent on his face.

Hiruzen smiled at Naruto; of course he'd focus in on the Sage. A small part of him was somewhat amused, knowing that he had gone from being the sole hero Naruto looked up to, to becoming one of two, maybe even three.

"The Sage reportedly was a master of chakra; he had an affinity to all five elements, although opinions vary on whether it was an innate mastery over all five elements, or whether it was his legendary Rinnegan that granted him a natural affinity to the five base elements," said Hiruzen as he stroked his chin in thought.

He personally had always favored the theory that the Sage had mastered all five elements and gained affinities through hard work; it simply lined up better with the picture Hiruzen had always held of the legendary figure.

Naruto's eyes were shining again at the mentioning of the Rinnegan, utterly giddy at hearing another incredible ability that it boasted. Hiruzen didn't need his decades of experience to see that Naruto wanted to have those mystic eyes.

"However," continued Hiruzen before Naruto could hyperventilate his exciement, "All people naturally have neutral chakra flowing through them; it is what allows most shinobi to use any of the five base elements through the use of their innate chakra, although much less efficiently than one would were it their natural affinity. Most ninja find it hard if not impossible to use elemental jutsu that are in conflict with their own affinity," lectured Hiruzen.

"Waddaya mean Jiji? Isn't all chakra equal?" asked Naruto, giving the old man his undivided attention.

Hiruzen shot him a smile; he _was_ paying attention. An inquisitive Naruto always managed to surprise him with his observation skills and the questions he asked, even at years old.

"Not quite Naruto-kun. You see, each element is weak to one other element and strong against another. Suiton techniques, for example, are strong against Katon jutsu but weak against Doton techniques," said Hiruzen as he grabbed some paper and a calligraphy pen as he began to draw out a chart of the five elements for Naruto's benefit.

"What's your chakra affinity Jiji?" questioned Naruto as he stared attentively at the wizen Hokage's hand move swiftly over the paper with a practiced ease.

"Doton and Katon, Naruto-kun. I didn't mention this earlier, but it is possible to have more than one affinity, although contrasting affinities are rare," answered Hiruzen as Naruto stared at him in awe. "It's also possible to attain an affinity for an element through repeated and constant use of it, although it's near unheard of for a shinobi to ever gain more than three affinities," lectured Hiruzen.

"Can you tell me what my affinity is Jiji?" asked Naruto excitedly as he thought of unleashing a firestorm or calling forth a tsunami with a hand seal.

Contemplating it for a moment, Hiruzen nodded, earning a wide smile from Naruto as he cheered. "But first Naruto-kun," said Hiruzen as he interrupted Naruto's impromptu celebration, "I will show you how to channel chakra, which is what I want to teach you. We can't check your affinity if you don't know how to channel chakra," explained Hiruzen as he stood up from the couch and motioned Naruto to follow his lead.

Standing up, Naruto shouted, "Just tell me what to do Jiji, I'll do it!" as he bounced on the balls of his feet. Nodding his head, Hiruzen spread his legs apart, bent his knees and extended his arms, holding them in a ram seal.

"Get in the exact same position that I'm in, and then I'll guide you through the process to access your chakra," said Hiruzen as he watched the boy expectantly.

Scrambling to get into the same position, Naruto mimicked the old man and asked, "Like this?"

Nodding his head, the Third began to speak in a slow, calm tone. "To do this Naruto-kun, you must clear your mind. Forget your excitement, forget your drowsiness and your hunger for breakfast. Clear your mind of everything and feel for something pulsating. I want you to close your eyes and focus inside yourself Naruto-kun," said Hiruzen hypnotically as he placed his fingers on Naruto's eyelids and gently closed them.

Naruto began to tense as he tried to follow the old man's advice, making the old man frown. "Naruto-kun, relax your body as well as your mind. Tension will only make it harder. Try breathing steadily, slowly, and deeply, and feel a steady pulsation resonate inside you. Look inwards to see a glowing power inside of you," lectured the old Kage helpfully.

Naruto…Naruto felt _something_ as he followed through on the old man's words_. _He wasn't quite sure what he did or how to describe it, but it felt as though he was pulling on something inside of him, like a rope.

As he put all of his concentration into grasping and pulling at whatever it was that he had latched on to, Hiruzen felt chakra coming from Naruto. Smiling at the boy's success, he was about to tell the boy to stop until he realized that the amount of chakra he was releasing was climbing and quickly.

Within seconds, the force of Naruto's chakra was causing a light breeze to flow through the office, rustling the papers on the Sandaime's desk.

The Sandaime pulled his pipe from his pocket and took a light puff, greatly pleased with the boy's chakra capacity; he was certainly living up to the Uzumaki's reputation for a strong life-force, seeing as the steady stream seemed to show no signs of slowing.

And then came the shocker, as Naruto's chakra output exploded. A strong burst pulsed out from Naruto and continued to push out in a torrent, becoming so powerful that the chakra Naruto was emitting became VISIBLE.

The Sandaime vaguely recognized that his pipe had fallen out of his mouth he stared onwards in shock as Naruto emitted enough chakra to summon Enma and then some. His paperwork had long fallen off his desk, pushing against the walls due to the force of Naruto's chakra. Even Hiruzen's robes were fluttering in the strong gust Naruto was creating.

The Sandaime cautiously stepped in front of Naruto, but the boy continued to hold his position, blind to everything but the flow of his chakra, until Hiruzen tapped him on the shoulder. The flow of chakra immediately stopped and Naruto stood looking around wide-eyed at the mess in Hiruzen's office. Smiling sheepishly at the old Kage, Naruto asked meekly, "Jiji...Did I do that?" expecting some kind of reprimand for the mess.

Surprising Naruto, Hiruzen smiled widely and nodded. "That was very good Naruto-kun, I wasn't expecting you to do it on your first attempt. You also seem to have a lot more chakra than I expected," said Hiruzen honestly as he mentally wondered if this had to do with the Kyuubi and whether Minato did this intentionally.

Naruto grinned at the Sandaime's words, pleased that he had impressed his surrogate grandfather. "Um! Thanks Jiji, but can you show me what my affinity is now?"

Stepping back to his now cleared desk, he reached into one of the drawers and pulled out what looked like an ordinary piece of paper and handed it to the confused boy.

"I want you to channel your chakra again while focusing on this piece of paper in your hand. You want to try and send your chakra into it, then we will know what your affinity is. Do you think you can do what you were doing earlier again Naruto-kun?" asked Hiruzen as he took a few steps back to give Naruto his space.

Still confused, Naruto nodded anyways and got back into the same position, closing his eyes as he glanced curiously at the paper in his hand one more time. After a few moments, Hiruzen once more felt the boy's chakra, albeit this time it wasn't fluctuating wildly but instead was slowly but steadily increasing. Hearing a soft 'schck' sound, Hiruzen smiled; Naruto had succeeded.

Naruto's chakra slowly began to recede until it was just him standing in the same pose he started with, eyes still closed.

"Naruto, that was very good, you managed to do channel your chakra much faster than you did the first time around. Continue to practice accessing your chakra until it becomes thoughtless and instantaneous; that is a must for any good shinobi, and I know you have it in you," praised the Sandaime, getting Naruto to grin foxily.

Slowly opening his eyes, he turned his closed fist upwards and opened his hand containing the chakra paper to the Sandaime.

The old Kage's eyes widened, before he started smiling, and then burst into warm laughter. Naruto began to pout, thinking he was being laughed at, before he heard Hiruzen let slip, "You're the first Uzumaki I've ever heard about without a Suiton affinity, Naruto-kun," chuckled the old Kage in amusement.

Hiruzen was frankly amazed that the boy didn't have an affinity to water; his mother Kushina had been an absolute monster with water ninjutsu and it was common for children to inherit the affinities of their parents. It appeared that Naruto had landed with Minato's affinity instead of Kushina's.

Naruto's eyes turned downcast as the Kage got his chuckles under control, sad that he wasn't living up to his clan. Hiruzen quickly noticed this and cursed his lack of tact as he drew Naruto into a one-armed hug. "Don't worry about not having a water affinity Naruto-kun, you can still use Water ninjutsu. I even have some things from the Uzumaki clan that survived its destruction to give you once you're stronger, older, and wiser," said Hiruzen, letting the fact slip but not quite caring as he tried to make the boy feel better.

"Besides," continued Hiruzen, not giving a damn that he would be dropping a clue at this point as he tried to console the downcast Uzumaki, "you have a wind affinity, just like the Yondaime Hokage."

Naruto, not really knowing all that much about the Yondaime, just shrugged, before a thought struck him and his smile returned as he looked at Sandaime with all the hope a six-year old could muster.

"Jiji!" shouted the excitable boy, "You said that with enough practice and hard work, you can gain an affinity, right?"

Having a good idea what Naruto was getting at, he nodded.

"Alright then, I'll get a Water affinity then! I'll do it if it's the last thing I do!" shouted Naruto with fire in his eyes. While it wasn't uncommon for Naruto make a declaration like that, it was entirely different from the happy boy's usual exclamations of a new goal. Naruto's fists were clenched, his stance rock-solid, and determination shining out of his eyes brighter than he had ever seen from the boy in Naruto's six years of life.

The Sandaime nodded, and offered something he was sure he would come to regret later.

"If you'd like Naruto-kun, I can teach you some Water ninjutsu once you complete a test I have for you," said the Sandaime with complete seriousness and geniality. Naruto's happy smile was the widest he'd ever seen it as the boy crushed the Sandaime's middle in a tight hug all the while shouting his thanks.

"Listen closely Naruto-kun," said the Sandaime as he let the blonde get his excitement out of his system, "I'm going to teach you an exercise that will help you control your chakra. I honestly don't expect you to start doing this exercise until you're at least a year into the academy and can easily access your chakra without having to get into the position I showed you, but I want to demonstrate it for you now. Once you learn this, I'll teach you suiton techniques," said the Sandaime genially.

Naruto nodded his head into the Sandaime's robes before pulling back from the Sandaime and shooting him a smile. Hiruzen nodded at him as he disappeared in a Shunshin and returned just as quickly as he left with a leaf in hand. Naruto stared with wide eyes at the Sandaime's technique.

"Can you teach me that Jiji?"

"No."

"Come o-"

"No."

"Fine," grumbled Naruto as he sat on the ground pouting. Hiruzen grinned, knowing this would get him right back up.

"Don't you want to learn what your test is before you can learn Water jutsu?" said Hiruzen, dangling the bait.

"Right!" shouted Naruto as he scrambled back to his feet and gave the old Kage his attention once more.

Hiruzen slowly placed the leaf on his forehead and gently removed his hand from the stem as he let it stick. Naruto simply stared back blankly.

"Is that it?" asked Naruto, thinking that he could do the same if he found the right leaf and stuck it on his forehead _juuust_ right. Hiruzen smiled amusedly at the boy's attitude before walking over to one of the walls.

As he stuck one foot, then another onto the wall, Hiruzen continued to walk as though it were an everyday occurrence until he was hanging upside down, using chakra to keep his robes stuck to his body before he began his lecture.

"As you can see Naruto-kun, this leaf is sticking to me in spite of the fact that it should be falling. What I'm really doing is using chakra to keep the leaf stuck to me; that's what I want you to learn how to do on your own," said Hiruzen as he cut the chakra flowing to his feet, dropping gracefully to the ground in front of an amazed Naruto.

"Can't I learn how to do that wall walking thing you just did instead?" asked Naruto excitedly as he hounded the resolute Hokage.

"No."

"But Ji-"

"But nothing Naruto-kun," cut in the Hokage, "You need to learn how to do the Leaf Concentration training before you can try anything else," so declared the Hokage with finality, cutting Naruto off mid-complaint and making him pout once more.

"Do remember that before you can do the Leaf Concentration exercise, you must learn how to channel your chakra correctly, and that will take time," added in the Sandaime, unintentionally adding salt to the wound and making Naruto begin to cry anime tears into the Sandaime's robes.

"Jiiiiijiiiiiiii," moaned Naruto as Hiruzen chuckled at his antics and lifted him off the ground by his armpits, earning a squawk of indignation from Naruto.

"Come along Naruto-kun, it's time for breakfast," said the Sandaime, carrying a grumbling Naruto to the Hokage Tower's shared kitchen with the Academy building.

'_I'm going to have to get Jiraiya back here soon to look at the seal if the Fox is managing to influence Naruto's dreams,_' thought Hiruzen grimly.

* * *

For the next three days, Naruto would wake up early and head out to one of Konoha's many clearings as he spent the day away practicing how to channel his chakra. His enthusiasm to become a ninja was actually so great that he only ate dinner and had actually begun to skip lunch entirely.

He was eating his dinners at the orphanage despite the poor food as well. He didn't have the energy to go visit the Ichiraku Ramen stand, and after what he said to Ayame, the will.

So it was that on the third day that a tired, sweaty, smelly Naruto came back from trying to access his chakra that he found all of his meager belongings strewn about in front of the orphanage's gates, a crying Tenten, and a quiet Lee silently gathering up his things into a clumsy pile into the sack in his hand. Naruto's greeting that he had been ready to give to his friends died in his throat as he took in the sight.

"...Wh-What happened?" asked Naruto as he stared at his things in shock.

Tenten angrily turned towards him and began to rage, "The stupid caretakers said that since you can't live here anymore! I didn't really understand what they were saying but they didn't care no matter how much me and Lee argued!" said the girl as angry tears leaked down her face.

Lee nodded as he gestured for Naruto down and handed him a piece of paper with fancy-looking characters on it that he could hardly read, let alone understand. "They left this here on top of the pile, Naruto-kun," offered Lee morosely as Naruto did his best to decipher the writing.

Grunting in frustration, Naruto's head sank. "I can't read what it says," said the boy sadly, wishing that he had been giving his lessons his all now instead of only slacking off.

The three just stood there in silence, only broken up by Tenten's occasional angry sniffle. Naruto decided to break that silence as hastily scrapped everything on the ground into the sack.

"I-I guess…..I guess this is where I say goodbye, huh?" said Naruto with a weak shadow of a smile as he stood up, sack in hand. Tenten huffed angrily, and shouted, "They can't do this! It's not fair! Why do you have to go! If they kick you out, we should go with you!" shouted the girl as she began to kick at the gates, making them rattle loudly until Lee pulled her back and away from the metallic perimeter that seemed to mock Naruto; or at least, that's how he felt as he stared at the gates with a feeling of defeat in his gut.

Naruto shook his head sadly, "I'm sorry guys but…just because I'm going doesn't mean you should be sad with me." He knew that the caretakers didn't like him and didn't really help him as much as the other kids, but he had never thought that THIS of all things would happen to him.

"You'll still see me in the park. Don't worry about me," offered Naruto with a weak grin and a shaky thumbs up. It was for naught though; both of his friends could see his shoulders shaking and the wetness in his eyes.

Tenten grabbed him in a hug as she cried and shouted onto his shoulder, Lee coming behind her and wrapping his two friends in a hug of his own as tears silently fell down his face too. And still, Naruto held on to his weak smile as he held the two to him.

Once they pulled away, Naruto tried his hardest to paste a smile on his face and raised his hand in farewell. "Don't worry you guys…you'll see me tomorrow. I promise," said Naruto in a shaky voice as his eyes closed, tears falling down the sides of his face as he held his foxy smile in place. The two began to cry openly once he turned away from them and began to slowly walk away as Tenten vowed loudly to get back at the caretakers that had kicked out her friend.

* * *

_**Three Days Later**_

* * *

Ayame was getting more and more worried as a full week rolled by without seeing her best friend. She blamed herself; it was she that had lashed out, and she that had all but told him to go die.

She knew that she hadn't been eating properly for the first two days since she and Naruto split off, and she was still rather sick and exhausted due to her stress and worry. The problem was that she couldn't bring herself to eat, with how sick she felt at the way she had treated Naruto.

Teuchi had been concerned at first but had shrugged it off as children's petty bickering, knowing that nothing ever kept Naruto down and that'd he be around soon, that the two would apologize to each other and that things would return to normal. At least, that's what he had hoped for.

Ayame hadn't gone outside to play all week and had been helping him run the stand; and for the first time, he had come to realize that he hated seeing his daughter slave away in here with him when she yearned to do something different, and take after her mother.

Now that she had been able to live a semblance of a childhood, Teuchi had come to realize his own folly. He had begun to wonder if he had made the right choice and whether his late wife would disapprove of what he had done.

He shook his head, knowing that the ship had sailed. It was too late to change course now and could only pray that when he went to meet his wife in the afterlife, that he would be able to meet her eyes with the confidence of knowing that he had done right by their daughter.

Noticing that his daughter was only drawing into herself more, Teuchi coughed to got her attention. "Musume, why don't you go home and rest. You look exhausted and I don't want you falling sick," said Teuchi softly as he continued to chop vegetables. Ayame nodded slowly and began to take off her work apron and bandana as she grabbed her school bag and made for the back door.

Instead of going immediately home however, she simply began to walk around aimlessly, barely avoiding running into people in the streets as she replayed what she had said to Naruto in her mind.

'_I'm a horrible person…he probably hates me for what I said. I ripped his dream apart and told him that he would fail, I even told him he can go die,_' thought the girl morosely, unaware that she was walking into one of the seedier districts in Konoha.

So lost in her thoughts was she that she didn't snap out of it and look around until she realized that she was standing in front of a run-down apartment complex. Looking around like a startled deer, she realized she didn't know where she was and felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. This was the area notorious for being where dead-end ninja and the few lowlifes that got away with their petty crimes lived. She was fully prepared to panic and was readying herself to start sprinting.

That is, until she spotted a blonde head of hair curled into a ball lying next to the apartment building, shivering. She had almost overlooked the sight until she did a double-take. Her heart leaped at the sight.

'_NARUTO!_' she mentally shouted with joy, but felt a growing sense of unease as she approached the shivering blonde-haired boy. She crouched down and rolled the boy over but recoiled in shock at the near unrecognizable face of her best friend.

He was sweating and shivering, whispering '…no, no, no, no…' repeatedly as he slept, whimpering in fear. His face was caked in mud and he smelled like he hadn't had a shower in days. Ayame was devastated at the sight.

"Naruto! Naruto, get up! Please!" shouted the girl desperately as she knelt down and tried to shake him awake, not caring that she was ruining her school uniform as she desperately tried to help her best friend out of his nightmare.

Tears began to slide down her cheeks as she saw Naruto whimper more as though in pain, terrified and scared by the fact that she seemed to be making it worse as she tried to wake him.

With a loud scream of horror, Naruto shot bolt upright, smashing his forehead against Ayame's and sending her sprawling to the ground, holding her head in pain while Naruto curled into a ball, eyes wide in panic, until he saw Ayame lying on the ground.

Carefully crawling over to her on his knees, Naruto realized who it was and desperately lunged at her, squeezing tightly as he apologized and promising to never be so stupid again and that he would never leave her alone again, rambling on and on about how he refused to let her die.

Ayame quickly forgot the pain from her forehead as she reciprocated the desperate hug, relieved beyond belief that he had awoken from his nightmare and began hushing him as she rocked him in the middle of the deserted street.

Once Naruto had calmed, she stood and helped him up, dusting off some of the dried dirt on his shirt and face as she stared worriedly at him.

"What happened to you Naruto? Why are you here and not in the orphanage?" asked Ayame quietly, still nervous about being alone in a clearly seedy district.

Naruto's relieved expression disappeared almost instantly as he looked at the ground and muttered something quietly.

"What?" asked Ayame, having not heard him.

"I said they kicked me out!" shouted Naruto at the air as he furiously kicked at the ground. "They dumped my stuff in front of the gate and left a letter saying why they did it!" Ayame stared with wide eyes, disbelief apparent in her face.

"But how! You're an orphan, of course you need to live there!" shouted Ayame in confusion.

"I don't know why but there's nothing I can do," hissed Naruto as tears began to fall down his face, leaving pink skin exposed in contrast to the muddy brown that caked him. Ayame continued to look on, feeling as though she were missing details here.

"Let me see the letter," demanded the girl. Naruto turned around and knelt next to a dirty rag that she realized with shock was actually a sack and pulled a wrinkled, ruffled, yet still legible letter out of it. While Naruto may not have had the abilities to read the letter, she could, for the most part.

Scanning the letter with narrowed eyes, she said, "They're claiming you have a legal guardian, which other orphans don't have; they're supposed to be wards of Konohagakure, so they used that as an excuse to evict you," said the girl after a bit of contemplation.

"Huh?" asked Naruto, not understanding what she was talking about.

"A legal guardian is somebody that's legally obligated to take care of you and provide for you in the case that parents aren't able to," offered the girl helpfully as she continued to brainstorm.

"But I've always been at the orphanage…why would they kick me out?" wondered Naruto out loud in disbelief at the idea that someone was supposed to take care of him. He was so used to not really having anybody except the Sandaime that the idea seemed…alien to him.

Squinting at the last few lines, Ayame answered, "It says that they discovered this when the Sandaime filled out your ninja application and listed someone named 'Jiraiya' as your guardian," said Ayame with frustration.

Who the hell was this Jiraiya!? Ayame simply felt anger at the whole stupid situation. Anger against this _Jiraiya, _against the orphanage, and against herself for not being smart enough to know how to help her friend, '_But that doesn't mean somebody else doesn't!' _thought Ayame in elation.

Making a decision, Ayame grabbed Naruto by his admittedly dirty hand and led him away from the building, his sack hanging in his other hand.

"Come on Naruto, we're going to my dad with this! He'll know what to do!" exclaimed the girl with conviction as she angrily stomped her way back down the street she came from with a confused Naruto in tow.

He had no idea what Ayame was talking about but couldn't care less with how happy he was to have his best friend back.

Ayame marched down the street with little to no knowledge where she was going but she didn't particularly care, she had a goal and she was going to get it done. One of the drunkards that had been lounging around in the street got up to block the girl's path, reeking of alcohol and with a stupid grin on his face. It was clear he had had far too many to drink.

"Hey pretty lady, you look _reeeaaaallll_ pretty, how's about you come back with me to my apartment?" said the overly intoxicated man as he leered at Ayame. She huffed in disgust and didn't slow a beat as she decked him in the gut and continued to stomp past, muttering about drunken perverts while Naruto sweatdropped at seeing his best friend so…angry.

* * *

As they reached a main road in the village, Ayame quickly half-ran with Naruto back to the Ichiraku stand and burst in with a shout.

"Tou-chan, we've got to talk to somebody! Naruto's been kicked out of the orphanage!"

Teuchi stared in confusion at his daughter.

"What do you mean musume?" asked the confused Ramen Chef until he got a good look at Naruto and did a double-take. "Naruto?"

"Yeah it's me Teuchi-jiisan, Ayame isn't lying, they kicked me out," said the blonde with an angry look in his face. Ayame reached back into the sack and pulled out the letter and showed it to Teuchi who quickly began to read it, a deep frown appearing on his face.

"The letter says they kicked out Naruto because he has a legal guardian that he's never met!" shouted Ayame angrily, drawing a curious glance from the lone client sitting at the far end of the stall.

Teuchi's eyes widened imperceptibly at the name Jiraiya as his mind raced through various questions until his eyes lit up in shock and he stared at Naruto's golden hair as though he had seen a ghost. Noticing the elder chef's odd stare, Naruto quirked an eyebrow and asked, "What, do I have something on my face other than all of this dirt?"

Teuchi shook his head and tightened his resolve; he had questions to ask now, many more than he had a few minutes ago. He scooped up the bowl from the client that had left only seconds before and quickly began to close up the shop as he said, "Listen kids, we're going to go talk with the Hokage and see if he can do anything. Help me close up and then we'll go."

The two best friends quickly scrambled to work and within five minutes were ready to depart. Naruto grabbed his bag while Ayame paced impatiently, wanting to get to the bottom of this.

The group of three departed and walked quickly to the Hokage Tower, Naruto still mostly indifferent to everything except the happiness he felt at having Ayame back. The two were still holding hands even now and Naruto's small grin was so bright that it almost illuminated long shadows of Konoha's evening. Almost, but not quite.

Coming to a stop before the tower, Naruto hesitated before Ayame jerked him forward and into the building. Teuchi approached the receptionist and asked for a meeting with the Hokage. The receptionist in turn didn't even bother to look up from her paperwork as told him that he'd be able to grant him one tomorrow in the evening, much to his chagrin. He was struck by an idea though, and coughed loudly, making the receptionist look up at him with a glare, until she spotted Naruto. The receptionist then immediately stood up and went to inform the Hokage of his three unexpected guests.

"Sandaime-sama will see you now," informed the breathless secretary as she rushed down the stairs and gestured for them to go up to meet the Hokage.

As the three began to climb the series of stairs that led to the top of the Hokage Tower, Naruto shot the Ichiraku family a questioning glance as he wondered what they hoped to accomplish. It wasn't like the Sandaime could make them take him back, right? Not that he had any desire to visit the desolate place.

Stopping in front of the Sandaime's door, Teuchi knocked thrice before they heard the words, "Enter," come from inside. Opening the door, Naruto saw the old Kage sitting at his desk in full Hokage apparel with an unusually serious expression on his face that Naruto hadn't even seen before.

Before taking a seat, Teuchi bowed at the waist and greeted, "Hokage-sama" while Ayame hastily scrambled to mimic her father. Naruto just shot him a small smile which was reciprocated by the Sandaime before his serious mask went back on.

"What seems to be your concern, Teuchi-san, and am I to presume it has to do with Naruto here as he is with you?" asked Hiruzen neutrally with a curious glance at Naruto's less than clean appearance.

Nodding silently, Teuchi offered the crumpled letter to Hiruzen who took it and then began to read. Almost immediately his expression began to harden until he was openly scowling at the offending piece of paper.

Naruto's dirty face and weary appearance now made much more sense and he could begin to connect the dots, especially once he saw the date listed on the letter, October 14th, which was three days ago.

"Thank you for bringing this before me, Teuchi-san. If you had not intervened, I do not know what would have happened to Naruto-kun. I will now handle this issue personally, as well as seeing some of the managers of the orphanage tried for this…mishap," said Hiruzen ominously with a scowl.

Sarutobi Hiruzen had led the village for close to fifty years now. His will got done when and how he wanted whether he was passive about it or not. As the longest reigning Kage and as the man who had defined the village more than even Hashirama Senju, opposition to him was rare, and had no true voice.

As Kage, he was dictator and all of Konoha's inhabitants were legally obligated to his whims whether civilian or ninja according to the Konoha charter. And these particular civilians had just crossed the line in his mind that was equivalent to breaking what was known as The Third's Law. Their only comfort should be that their deaths would be swift and possibly merciful.

Teuchi nodded slowly, pleased that there would be retribution.

"I wanted to ask you a few questions in regards to Naruto, Sandaime-sama, if you would be willing to hear me," said Teuchi carefully.

The Sandaime nodded, gesturing for him to continue.

"I wanted to ask if Naruto could live with me," said the man to the shock and surprise of both of the children there. The Sandaime on the other hand, wasn't honestly shocked but was weighing the pros and cons of doing so against his original plan, to set Naruto up in his own apartment.

Naruto just looked at the aging Ramen chef with wide eyes while Sandaime remained silent and took a puff of his pipe. Ayame simply pulled her best friend into an awkward one-armed hug as she stared at her dad with wide, hopeful eyes, praying that this meant what she hoped it meant.

The silence was deafening until it was broken by the Sandaime taking the pipe out of his mouth and blowing the smoke out slowly in a deep breath, making Naruto and Ayame cough.

"Alright," said the Sandaime with a small smile. Teuchi did a double-take before his face broke into a wide grin and he turned to the two children and grabbed them in a hug, but not before being beaten to it by his daughter as Ayame did her best to crush Naruto's organs into putty through his ribcage.

Naruto continued to stare at the old Kage through tangled limbs before his previously missing grin reappeared in full force and he cheered loudly, Ayame joining in with his cheers and thanking her father profusely.

The Sandaime cleared his throat, making the three break up and blush at the Hokage's light reprimand. "Teuchi-san, you must know that if you DO take care of Naruto, you won't be able to legally become his guardian," said the Sandaime in warning.

Teuchi opened his mouth to argue, but quieted down at the look the Sandaime sent him, clearly understanding the message; _later_. He nodded, albeit hesitantly, as the Sandaime turned to the two children.

"First of all, Naruto-kun I expect you to behave your best and help out your new family. Alright?" asked the Sandaime, gaining a rapid head nod from a smiling Naruto. "Good, now I need to speak with Teuchi about some of the paperwork, could you two step outside?"

Naruto happily stepped out, his mind still in a near-drunken happy stupor while Ayame narrowed her eyes slightly, curious as to what the Sandaime wanted to talk about. Shrugging her shoulders, she grabbed Naruto by the hand and led him out the door, closing it behind her.

Turning to the Hokage, Teuchi opened his mouth to speak but was beaten before he could even make a sound.

"You know who Naruto's father is," said the Hokage as he took a few puffs from his pipe. It was not a question; merely a statement. Teuchi felt nervous as he slowly nodded.

"I have to request that you do not tell him. When the time is right, Jiraiya will come and tell him himself, he personally requested the right to do so," said the Sandaime, answering Teuchi's second unspoken question.

"Why is Jiraiya of the Sannin listed as Naruto's guardian?" asked Teuchi as he found his voice again. The Sandaime's face actually broke into a grin as he recalled the rather whacky tale his predecessor had told him of how Naruto had come to be named.

"Minato named Jiraiya Naruto's godfather because he came up with Naruto's name. Due to his personal mission to hunt down and kill Orochimaru as well as his role as Konoha's spymaster, he has been unable to personally raise Naruto. He always feared that he was not cut out to raise a child," said the Sandaime sadly. He had even asked Jiraiya to take the position of Godaime in order to raise Naruto but he had rebuffed him.

Continuing on, he said, "Jiraiya has been providing the funds to raise Naruto and also pays for Naruto's monthly stipend; as his de facto guardian, those funds will now be redirected to you outside of Naruto's pocket money." Teuchi nodded at his words and began to rise.

"Thank you Hokage-sama. Despite Naruto's heritage, I was prepared to take care of the boy before I made the connection that Naruto was a Nam-"

Hiruzen sharply cut him off with a low hush, shaking his head. Teuchi got the message loud and clear; the name Namikaze was taboo to be spoken out loud.

Gulping, Teuchi asked, "Why the secrecy?"

Hiruzen contemplated what details to give as he thought over what Teuchi may need to know. Gazing into his eyes, he answered, "If anyone were to find out about Naruto's heritage, we would have enemies swarming over Konoha's borders to eliminate the Yondaime's legacy." Teuchi once again nodded, feeling like a boy before the weariness of the Sandaime's face as he thought about the day of Naruto's birth.

'_Not to mention that masked man who killed my beloved Biwako_' thought the old Kage as his shoulders slumped slightly at the thought of his departed wife. He didn't hold much hope for avenging her death as the years passed on, but it was a secret that he had sworn he would hunt down the man that killed his wife the instant he heard a hint of where he was even if he had to abdicate the seat of Hokage, so deep was his love for her.

Teuchi made to rise and offered the Hokage a deep bow before turning away and walking out of the office to meet the two children.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama."

* * *

_**A Short Walk Later**_

* * *

The two children made their way into the Ichiraku's apartment building slowly, Ayame still exhausted from her week of bad sleep and poor eating, while Naruto hadn't eaten much in the last three days if at all apart from the bowl of ramen Teuchi had slipped him while they dealt with closing down the restaurant.

After climbing several floors, they were standing in front of a door in one of the apartment buildings that were well-known to have many ninja residents who would be gone for long stretches of time. Due to its clientele, there was occasionally the need for a team of genin to come in and clear out the apartment of a newly departed ninja. Not that Naruto or Ayame knew this, however.

Naruto walked in but quickly stopped in his tracks as he stared at the pair of gleaming silver weapons that hung on the wall in the living room that served as a centerpiece. They looked almost like the bo staff that the Sandaime had shown him except each one had a massive ball of silver on one end and were made entirely from the stuff.

"What is that?" asked the blond excitedly, feeling an urge to go and touch the weapons. Ayame looked down sadly. "They're called Chúi…they used to belong to my mother." This brought Naruto's excitement to a screeching stop as he recalled what had led to their falling out.

"Here we are," said Teuchi. "I hope you like the place Naruto, sorry if it's not the cleanest, but looking at you right now, you wouldn't be one to talk," said the chef with a bark of laughter making the blonde pout weakly. Teuchi stepped inside and gestured down the hall.

"Ayame, show Naruto where the shower is and get rid of those clothes; try to find him some that he can use to sleep in."

"Oh, I've got pajamas Teuchi-jiisan," said Naruto as he smacked his grimy sack sending dirt everywhere, making him smile sheepishly. "They should be fine, everything inside here's actually clean." Teuchi nodded and gestured for his daughter to lead Naruto to the bathroom to clean off.

"Sorry Naruto, but you're going to be sleeping in Ayame's room for now since we only have two beds and the living room is a mess," shouted Teuchi as the two disappeared down the hall. Ayame blushed at his words but Naruto simply shrugged; he saw nothing wrong with that.

After Ayame dropped him off in the bathroom, he quickly stripped and jumped into the shower, vigorously scrubbing his matted hair and using soap to get all the dirt off his face. Once his shower was finished, he dried himself off and slipped into the pajamas that Ayame had left him with and brushed his teeth with the old toothbrush he had brought with him from the orphanage.

Stepping outside, he wandered around a bit trying to find Ayame's room before she peeked her head out from the door at the end of the hall on the left side and gestured him over. As he stepped into the room, he saw that she had already changed into a nightgown and that his meager possessions were lying in a neat pile at the foot of her bed.

The room itself was decently sized, and certainly bigger than the small space that he had called a room back in the orphanage. It was painted a warm yellow color and had a decently sized bed, a dresser, and a desk and chair. Papers and books lay on the desk and there were pictures of Ayame, Teuchi, and a woman that looked eerily like Ayame. He stood stock still staring at the older Ayame lookalike while Ayame marched past him and turned to face him.

"Okay Naruto-kun, get in," said Ayame as she gestured at the bed. Naruto looked at her confusedly as though she had grown a second head. "Ano, this is your bed Ayame-chan, I can sleep on the floor if you give me a pillow and some sheets," offered the boy as he looked around her room expectantly for the pile of cloth and plush he was searching for.

Ayame grumbled impatiently before she dragged him roughly to her bed and pushed him in with a yelp before jumping in herself, turning off the light, and grabbing him in a hug. Naruto blushed slightly due to having never rested like this before but gave a mental shrug and reciprocated the hug.

Teuchi checked in on them after hearing the yelp, but gave a shrug at seeing his daughter sharing a bed with Naruto. He was 6, and she was 10, it's not like anything would come out of it. He didn't really hit puberty until he turned 12 himself.

Naruto wanted to fall asleep, and quickly, due to his exhaustion but found that he couldn't as the face of the woman he suspected was Ayame's mother. popped back into his head. He tried looking out the window and counting the clouds, simply staring at the ceiling, but nothing worked. Sighing softly to himself in frustration, he whispered, "Ayame-chan?" not really expecting an answer.

"Yeah?" answered a voice back just as softly. Naruto turned his eyes onto Ayame's face and found that while they were half-closed with exhaustion, she remained awake and had been gazing intently at his face. Naruto shifted a bit self-consciously as he thought of how to bring up what was on his mind.

"Ayame-chan," he began cautiously, "I want to ask you a question and I'm begging you to not get mad if it makes you angry. Please," said the boy as he squeezed her to him. Ayame sleepily nodded at him, gesturing for him to go on as she moved her hands from his middle and placed one on his neck and the other on his lower back.

"C…..Could you tell me what happened to your mother?" asked Naruto cautiously, feeling like he was stepping on sharpened kunai. Ayame's eyes lost all trace of sleepiness but seemed to go out of focus before she slowly nodded.

"My mom was a kunoichi named Ichiraku Atsumi...She was a chuunin and only 16 when she met my father. After a tough mission near the end of the Third Shinobi World War, she had stopped by the restaurant by chance and had ordered a bowl of ramen. My dad was working the counter for the family restaurant at the time and they hit it off; they were married a year later and had me a year after that." Ayame smiled gently at the thought of her mother, but then her thoughts turned more morose and the smile left her face as her eyes began to glisten.

"My mom had taken time off as a kunoichi to have me and be with me when I was younger. She was almost about to apply to become a jonin when she became pregnant with me and her skills began to deteriorate, so for the first five years of my life, my mother simply looked after me like any other mother," at this, she stopped to laugh weakly.

"But she never failed to tell me amazing stories about her experience as a ninja. She made me want to be a ninja and it became my dream to be like my mom. Once I turned six though, my mom began to start training again to begin taking missions and pay off our debts that had accumulated without my mom's income as a ninja. She resumed her duties as a chuunin of Konohagakure around the time that I turned seven. At this point, I had been in the Academy for about a year," said Ayame with a melancholy, hollow smile.

"Her first mission when she returned was to do a scouting mission with three other chuunin near Konoha's borders with Ame. She never returned. Me and dad were devastated, but I did my best to not let it get to me. That went against everything my mom taught me," said Ayame with a sniffle.

"I was giving my all into the academy and my dad was working long shifts as he slowly but steadily began to pay off our debts," said Ayame with a sad frown. Naruto could sense that wasn't the end of it though.

"What happened? Why did you leave the Academy?" asked Naruto, his curiosity burning as he sought to understand his best friend better.

"When…When I turned 8…Orochimaru was ousted for having experimented on Konoha ninja and conducting inhumane experiments. They found what remained of my mom's body inside...inside his laboratory," whispered Ayame as she dug her face into Naruto's shoulder and began to sob, doing her best to muffle her voice so that her dad wouldn't hear her. Naruto awkwardly moved his arm to embrace the taller girl.

"They never found the bodies of the three other chuunin that went with my m...mom, and they found signs of her having been in a major fight due to wounds she had on her that were apparently not caused…not caused by Orochimaru," said Ayame through whispered sobs.

Naruto looked confused. "But why would she have been hurt?"

"They think that she and her team were ambushed and that she was the only one to escape back towards Konoha. Then she apparently ran into Orochimaru looking for help, who abducted her and used her for his experiments…"Ayame finished in what was little more than whispered breath.

Looking into Naruto's eyes, she continued, "Dad took me out of the academy the day we found out. He didn't want me to be a ninja, not after what happened to mom. I cried for weeks because that day, I lost my mom and I lost my dreams," said Ayame into Naruto's shoulder, "…the only thing I had left was the urge for revenge against Orochimaru…" she hissed out as an uncharacteristically angry look came into her eyes before they softened once more as she gazed into Naruto's own wide azure eyes.

Naruto simply did not know what to say. All along…he had been making Ayame play ninja with him, he talked to her nonstop about how he wanted to be Hokage, and constantly babbled on about how excited he was to start the academy.

Every word he said must have felt like a slap in the face to Ayame, whose dream was being dangled in front of her face. Naruto felt like the biggest asshole in the world at the moment as he looked at his best friend's sad, distraught face.

Naruto desperately racked his brain for what to do. How could he make this up to her? He began to frown in guilt, before his eyes widened slightly and his mouth made an 'O' in surprise. Ayame looked on into the blonde's face in confusion, wondering what was going through his mind.

"Do…Do you still want to be a ninja?" asked Naruto in a low whisper. Ayame's eyes widened slightly before she hesitantly, almost fearfully nodded yes. Naruto shot her an honest smile as his eyes glistened slightly for his best friend's suffering.

"I swear that I'll help you become one. I'll teach you everything I know and do everything I can so that you'll be right next to me when I become Hokage," said Naruto as he squeezed her in a hug, leaving a shell-shocked Ayame staring at him before she buried her face into his blonde locks.

* * *

**AN: I think this may be my longest chapter ever, and I'm pretty pleased with it.**

**Note that I, personally, HATE, HATE, HATE the usual fanfiction trope where the main character is treated like shit and the females throw themselves at him in their quest to comfort him and give him pity sex and tear up at a drop of the hat the instant they hear about their being mistreated. **

**I like to think that all the crying that's been going on in these last two chapters are honest tears; that the people who cry have real, heartfelt reasons to shed tears and that due to a combination of their age and their emotional immaturity, cry freely. I promise that this is more or less the end for the continuous sob-fest. The groundwork has been set; let the games begin.**

**Suiton: Water Release**

**Katon: Fire Release**

**Fuuton: Wind Release**

**Doton: Earth Release**

**Raiton: Lightning Release**

**Ame (no Kuni): Land of Rain**

**Chúi: As I described, they are essentially a Chinese war hammer except it looks different than what we would traditionally think of as a war hammer. It's essentially a long staff with a large ball at the end that functions as the 'head' of the hammer, and are usually used in pairs. There is a backstory to how Ayame's mother got these puppies. Also, silver is heavy. Heavy as FUCK. I believe that it's actually heavier than iron and steel. Make of the implications what you will.**

**For those who have watched Ranma ½, it's the weapons Shampoo always seems to use that almost like they're made of paper but can break shit up real nicely. Yeah, those things.**

**Finally, I'm unsure exactly how I want to handle Ayame's ninja training. Should I have her kept outside of Konohagakure's ninja forces, or should I stick her in(I'd be putting her in a position where she remains closely tied to Naruto, although to what extent, I'm not quite sure yet. Academy? Apprenticed? Special exception genin?)  
**

**Drop a review and let me know your opinions on this; this is where the plot kicks up!  
**


	4. The Blood Red Dye Is Cast

AN: This is hot off the presses, and I'm on a roll. Leave me a review, because those are my crack and you all know how crack makes you act.

…Right?

* * *

**A Better Friend**

**Chapter 3: Back to Normal?**

* * *

It was roughly nine months since he had moved in with Ayame and her father, and things were honestly looking up for Uzumaki Naruto. Mornings were spent at the academy, which he honestly found kinda dull, but Jiji had burned it into his head that studying was part of being a good ninja, and so Naruto gave it his all. So far, he had even managed to get some decent grades for his efforts, which Ayame had been very pleased about.

Once dismissed from class, Naruto had picked up the habit of rounding up a friend or two then going to Ichiraku Ramen for lunch. After that, he would go to the park with his friends(and Ayame) to play until dusk.

After returning to the ramen stand, Naruto and Ayame would help out Teuchi at the stand until closing, when they would all go home for the day. Well, Naruto sort of helped.

Ayame and her father had been quick to realize that letting the blonde serve bowls was a bad idea due to his urge to eat up any bowl of ramen he laid his grubby little hands on, so Teuchi had decreed that he would only chop vegetables and wash dishes, to Naruto's protest.

To Teuchi, everything seemed to have worked out splendidly. His daughter was happy again, Naruto was a nice, helpful kid and was working hard towards his goals, and their finances were in the black again. But then, there were things he didn't know that would have brought down his positive outlook for the future.

Such as the fact that Naruto had secretly begun to teach his daughter how to channel the chakra the very day after they took him in.

No, Teuchi would not be happy about that at all.

The very first time they had tried to sneak off to practice had been very awkward for the pair. They had just finished eating their lunch but Naruto had been twitchy and nervous the entire time, and Ayame had been sure that their cover was blown. Luckily for them, Teuchi had waved it off as Naruto still being emotional about his quasi-adoption and didn't say anything.

Once they had made it to the park, they had gone off to one of the small clearings that were hidden by trees where nobody could see them and had begun. Naruto had begun to channel his chakra to show Ayame the way the old man had shown him, but then they heard voices heading their way.

* * *

_**Flashback**_

* * *

"Hey, I think they're this way, I see yellow!" shouted a girl's voice, making Ayame panic and Naruto drop his posture immediately, eyes wide.

"Oh Kami, this is supposed to be secret! If we get caugh-," whispered Ayame franctically at the thought of what her dad would do if he found out.

She didn't get to finish her sentence because Naruto had placed his hand over her mouth. "Ssshhh, Ayame-chan, they can't find us if they can't hear us," whispered Naruto as he began to slowly inch backwards away from the trees.

The two continued to slowly move away, until Naruto bumped into something. Something that was clearly not a tree.

Turning around, he came face to face with the amused grin of an older black-haired boy dressed in black pants, an unzipped flak jacket, ninja sandals, and a sleeveless black shirt with the the Uchiha fan featured prominently on his chest, with a Hitai-ate on his head. Based on his height, he couldn't be any older than Itachi.

"Going somewhere you shouldn't, gaki?"

Naruto frowned, scrunching his face in a glare. "Uzumaki Naruto, who the hell wants to know!" shouted Naruto as he pointed his finger at the amused boy's face, quoting something he had heard Kiba say once.

He conveniently forgot that Kiba had been smacked by his sister for saying that. The boy's grin just seemed to widen as he looked over the boy's head and nodded, making Naruto and Ayame turn.

Behind them was Itachi standing next to Ino with Sasuke on his back, while Shikamaru was standing a few paces back grumbling per usual. "I think I like this one," said the unknown Uchiha boy.

Itachi simply nodded, "I told you that you would; you're both very alike," said the more reserved Uchiha, drawing a twitching brow from the boy as he frowned at his best friend.

"Oi! I'm nowhere near as loud as this gaki!" shouted the boy, peeved at being compared to the brat who began yelling again.

"I am NOT a gaki! Who are you anyways?" asked Naruto as he eyed the older boy with a slit-eyed frown.

"The guy who just caught you channeling chakra, kid! The name's Uchiha Shisui," said the boy, hitching his thumb towards himself.

Naruto was upset at being caught by the guy and wanted to punch him, but sighed instead and turned to Ayame, who had remained quiet the entire time.

"Don't worry Ayame-chan, we'll find a way to show you how to be a ninja even if your dad does finds out," said Naruto comfortingly as he shot the now identified Shisui a dirty look.

"Yare yare, now why the hell would I do that?" asked the Uchiha with a curious glance at the blonde midget.

Naruto opened his mouth to bite back, but then stopped himself, realizing that he honestly didn't know what the Uchiha kid would do.

"Hmh. Like I thought. Say, want me to help you out with your chakra?" offered the boy as though he hadn't been arguing with the blonde seconds ago.

Naruto looked at the guy guardedly, still internally nervous at being caught. "Why would you do that?" asked Naruto with a squinty stare, making the boy sweatdrop.

Ino walked over to her fellow blonde and elbowed him while hissing angrily, "Naruto, this guy's a _jounin!_ Don't be a moron! And where have you been these last few days anyways!"

Blushing, she covered her mouth as she realized that she had shouted that last part out loud.

Shisui chuckled as Itachi and Sasuke watched on in amusement (at least, Naruto thought it was amusement, you could never be too sure with the stoic Uchiha) at the comic blonde-haired duo.

Shisui stepped forward with a swagger, grin on his face. "The girl's right you know, I may not look it, but I recently got promoted to jonin; no need to bow in front of my awesome though," bragged Shisui as he rubbed his knuckles on his shirt and looked at Naruto expectantly, making the boy twitch.

"But hey, I'll teach ya even if you don't wanna bow down to me. Just meet me at the park tomorrow; hell, bring a friend or three, I don't care," said Shisui aloofly. "But now that we've dropped off Chibitachi here, we're off. Later!"

At his words, Itachi dropped Sasuke off of his back and set him the ground gently. Nodding at Shisui, the two took off in shunshins, making Naruto grumble about the old man who wouldn't teach him cool jutsu like that.

As the two Uchiha ran on the roofs back towards their compound, Shisui mentally thought back to the loud blonde and smiled fondly in nostalgia. The kid was a blonde-haired carbon copy of his older brother.

Turning his head to look at Itachi, Shisui gestured back towards where they came from.

"You know," drawled Shisui lazily at Itachi, "If that blonde gaki hadn't drawn his chakra, we probably wouldn't have found him. It was like a beacon, yeah?"

Itachi nodded, making Shisui sigh irritably at his friend's lack of communication.

* * *

_**End Flashback**_

* * *

Thanks to Ino, when the next day came around for Uchiha Shisui he found 12 brats waiting for him with varying degrees of excitement(and Ayame) while Hana had looked on with curiousity. Since that day, it had become a competition of sorts amongst the group to see who could channel their chakra quickest and who could master the leaf concentration exercise. Over the next few months, all of the children had picked up at the very least the ability to channel chakra. Generally speaking, it was the boys who managed to channel their chakra first, but it was the girls who picked up the leaf concentration training quickest.

Ayame was actually one of the last girls to be able to channel her chakra(Sakura was the second to last, and Lee was the slowest person) but was able to quickly pick up on the leaf concentration exercise, to Naruto's consternation as he continued to struggle for month after month to make slow progress.

What none of them except Itachi had realized at the time was that Ayame had begun the process in which the chakra coils began to narrow from disuse, something that happened to almost all civilians and locked them out from accessing their chakra. Another year and Ayame may have not been able to use it at all, but due to her continuous attempts to channel it, the deterioration had been quickly reversed and her chakra coils had soon returned to what would be normal for a girl her age; it wouldn't affect her ninja career at all.

As the record stood, it was Naruto who managed to channel chakra first(Shisui made it a habit to pick on him and point out that his accomplishment didn't count since nobody else knew how yet at the time) while Ino was the first person to successfully complete the leaf concentration exercise. Sakura had actually managed to do it on her first attempt, but took too long to channel her chakra for the first time. The only ones who had yet to compete the leaf concentration training were Naruto(to his chagrin) and Lee.

Lee was actually another oddity in their group when it came to chakra. At first, he had found it incredibly difficult to channel chakra and had only managed to succeed in drawing it out after months of effort but had made zero progress with the leaf concentration exercise, something not even Naruto could claim.

While at first it had been amusing for the others to see Lee constantly placing a leaf on his forehead only to have it fall off, but it had quickly ceased to be funny once a month passed by and Lee still had yet to do it. It had actually become such a big concern to the group of friends that they had began to brainstorm what the problem could have been and had tried a variety of ideas to get Lee making progress.

As the 'trainers' of sorts for the group, Itachi and Shisui had also tried a variety of different tests but none had proven successful.

After countless failed attempts, Naruto got the idea to take Lee in front of the Hokage to try and see if he had a solution.

Hiruzen had at first been stumped(not that he let Naruto know that) until he decided to call in a Hyuuga to observe Lee's chakra pathways. The Hyuuga ninja had quickly diagnosed the problem and had declared that the boy's chakra circulatory system was very thin; that it almost looked like a civilian's chakra pathways.

Once he dismissed the ninja, Hiruzen had been ready to reluctantly dismiss Lee from the Academy. Which he did, despite his clear hesitation.

Then Lee had gotten on his knees and given the Hokage the most passionate plea he had even seen to not take his dreams away, and Hiruzen had folded.

He had written up a letter before sealing it and calling in Itachi and Shisui. The Sandaime had assigned them the mission of finding and delivering the letter to Tsunade of the Sannin and taking Lee with them.

Albeit confused, they had done as he asked and left the village with a meek Lee in tow. Before they left, Sarutobi had made it clear that they were to let Tsunade know that this was NOT a request or demand for her to return to the village, only to help an injured child.

Naruto had complained loudly about how unfair it was that they got to go but he didn't but hushed up quickly after a whack to the head and a boring lecture about why he wasn't allowed to go, courtesy of the Sandaime.

Two months later, Shisui and Itachi had returned with a near-mummified Lee who they said should be able to use basic ninjutsu like any other shinobi, but that most large-scale jutsu would be beyond the capacity of his chakra coils. The Sandaime was happy to take what he could get, knowing that the dreams of the young orphan would live on.

When the three had returned, it had been to a very large crowd of happy brats and a very clingy Naruto who had been latched onto his leg. Ever since Shisui met Naruto, the two had grown really close and Naruto had come to look up to Shisui as an older brother, even calling him Oyabun.

It wasn't very surprising considering how alike the two were in personality, and to Shisui, it was almost as though his dead brother had been resurrected from the grave in the blonde-haired boy.

The prodigious Uchiha had begun to spend most of his free time with the blonde and his band of misfits, as he took to calling them. His willingness to hang around the gaki gang made Itachi's visits to play with them all the more frequent, to Sasuke's delight.

But having informal 'instructors' to give them a few pointers wasn't the end of Ayame and Naruto's efforts to turn her into a ninja.

Ayame and Naruto had also made it a habit to sneak out to a clearing once a week in the middle of the night to practice fighting, not that they were very good at it. Naruto was an amateur grappler at best and fought like a street thug, while it had taken Ayame months to even be able to lift her practice chúi.

She had taken to sneaking out her mother's old pair of wooden chúi that were hollow on the inside and had almost woken up her father plenty of times due to the racket she made when trying to get them out of the house.

'Spars' between them usually consisted of Naruto rushing in trying to duck under Ayame's clumsy swings. Either Naruto pinned Ayame down in awkward position that never truly kept her unable to move, or Naruto ended up getting smacked away as Ayame dropped one of her chúis and used the other to clobber him like it were a pickaxe. Due to Naruto's unnatural stamina, Ayame usually managed to 'win' their spars the first few times but quickly began to lose to Naruto as she exhausted herself trying to swing around the heavy wooden weapons.

Their little group had also managed to gain a 'home base' of sorts when Tenten had discovered an interesting little fact that had managed to let her leave the orphanage and bring Lee along with her.

As it turns out, due to her father having owned a property in Konoha(a weapons store) before he died and orphaned Tenten, she was eligible to receive something akin to a limited emancipation due to some obscure clause in the Konoha Charter. This gave her the right to leave the orphanage if she so chose, but she was originally unwilling to leave Lee behind.

Tenten then proved her brass that day when she requested a meeting with the Hokage himself and managed to convince him to give Lee the same limited emancipation she had.

Her devious little mind had thought of bringing Naruto with her to play up the fact that the old Kage was always willing to give Naruto some amount of leeway and to serve as a reminder of what the orphanage was like. After that not-so-subtle reminder, Hiruzen had signed off and had emancipated Lee as well, to the cheers of all three.

The Sandaime swore that day to keep an eye on the cheeky little girl with enough bravery to try and argue with a Kage.

Tenten and Lee had quickly set up shop on the second floor of the weapons store and had even decided to reopen it, something Hiruzen hadn't expected her to do for years.

At first, Tenten had insisted that Naruto move in with her and Lee due to their shared commiseration at the orphanage, but had quickly dropped that idea once Ayame-neechan had begun to shoot her the evil eye.

At first, the two had struggled a lot to get the shop running, until Tenten had been hit by inspiration and had decided to 'hire' her friends and pay them to help her out at the shop.

Soon the little shop had turned into their second unofficial meeting point and their 'home base', so to speak, aside from Ichiraku Ramen. While running the shop was hard at first(some of her friends weren't very good at math, to Tenten's chagrin), they had quickly learned enough to help carry weapons out from storage or show the clients where to find certain weapons while the older ones or Tenten herself manned the register.

The store even gained renown for its odd way of functioning and was jokingly referred to as 'The Chibi Shop' due to the fact that it was the only place in the village where a business seemed to run on 'child labor'.

While it was hard work and sometimes even stressful to run the shop with child 'employees' when she was herself a child, Tenten managed and she was happy, so Hiruzen never did a thing to stop her.

* * *

Today was a hot summer day in Konoha, and several of the children from the group were playing amongst the trees in the shade. Currently standing near the outskirts of Konoha, Hinata was playing hide and seek with Naruto, Ayame, Sakura, and Shisui, and they were hidden well.

The normally shy girl pouted mentally at the fact that she couldn't use the Byakugan like she had a couple of times before or Shisui would catch her and call her on it like he did the last time she tried it, to her great embarrassment.

She ran through the trees, her sandals making a soft thumping noise with the every step as she looked around and craned her head in every direction. She was keeping an eye on the tree branches above ever since Naruto had hidden from her and led on a wild goose chase a couple of months ago.

Hearing a soft rustling of leaves to her left, she quickly turned and ran into a tree. Moaning softly as she held her head in pain, she turned again to the rustling bushes and ran at it, determined to catch at least one of her friends. As she approached the bushes, she saw a hand come out towards her face, making her freeze in shock.

It was a hand far too large to belong to any of her friends. Grasping her by her shirt, the man took his other hand and made to chop at the back of the girl's neck while Hinata looked up in fear. As she saw the grinning face of a blonde man she had never seen before, her world went dark.

Crouching down to adjust the unconscious girl under his arm, Atsui smiled, relieved that the capture mission would be over soon and that he had yet to draw attention to himself. Hearing rustling behind him, he quickly got up and began to sprint, pumping chakra to his legs as Shisui burst out of the trees hot on his trail.

The man tightened his grip on the unconscious Hinata as he pulled out his ornate white katana in his free hand. Atsui gave a small hop and began to channel chakra to his feet as he smoothly landed in a crouch facing the angry face of Uchiha Shisui only feet from him. Offering the boy a mocking smirk, he jumped, hard, and made to swing his sword.

Shisui's eyes narrowed as he rolled left only to see the man swipe towards the ground. His expression didn't show any of the shock he felt on the inside when fire, actual fire left the sword in a stream that seemed to give the blonde Kumo nin a boost as he barely cleared the walls of Konoha with his leap.

Shisui growled as he saw the blonde man elude him and raced towards the village's north gate. Using a Shunshin to appear on the other side of the gate, Shisui called upon his chakra reserves ferociously as he began to use his signature technique gratuitously to head northeast towards Kumo; there was a reason he was called Shunshin no Shisui.

* * *

_The Hokage's Office_

"…thank you for bringing this to my attention, Itachi-kun," said the Sandaime as he looked stonily upon the bowed ANBU, while on the inside, he was sweating in tension as he wondered how the Uchiha clan could have planned _this_ under his nose.

Itachi bowed his head lower in acknowledgement before meeting the Sandaime's gaze, only moving his eyes to briefly to gauge the Sandaime's advisers. They did not look pleased.

The young Uchiha felt like there was a lump in his throat but continued on anyways, "As I mentioned earlier, only a small segment of the clan are openly voicing their support. A majority are only voicing lukewarm to negative support, and most of the retired shinobi, and obviously children, know nothing about this plot."

Sarutobi nodded, offering the Uchiha a weak smile. "We will of course not punish all Uchiha, especially not those such as you who cooperate like you have, Itachi-kun," offered the Sandaime, knowing that it was important to keep the only Uchiha he knew for a fact he could rely on on the same side.

"We will try diplomacy," continued the Sandaime, angering his three advisers who opened their mouths to interrupt, but were cut off as Hiruzen angrily waved his arm at them to quiet.

"You believe that the Uchiha will not revolt for at least another six months?" asked the Sandaime as a frown creased his face. Itachi nodded.

"Then we have time to find a solution that leads to little or no bloodshed," said the Hokage with finality, making Danzo's face tighten in frustration as Koharu and Homura looked on with disapproval.

Itachi deepened his bow until his head was touching the ground.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama."

* * *

Atsui was racing as fast his legs could carry him towards Kumo; as someone who specialized in speed, getting away from Konoha's forces should be a breeze for him, which is part of the reason why he was chosen to play ambassador. If worse came to worst, he could ideally get out of Hi no Kuni.

His plans came crashing down when a fist collided solidly with his face, sending him crashing into a tree and breaking it into timber. Hinata had flown out of his grasp but landed in the arms of a crouched Shisui, who set her down gently on the ground behind him and pulled out a kunai.

Shisui's hands began to blur as Atsui groaned and stood up from the remains of the tree, white katana in hand. "How did you find me?" asked Atsui with honest curiosity. He could count the people who were faster than him in Kumo on one hand.

Shisui simply smirked at him, infuriating the Kumo hothead, "That's my little secret to keep."

"Alright then, you want to dance with the heat Konoha-nin, well start moving or get burned!" shouted Atsui as he sprinted at Shisui and lashed out with his sword, sending a wave of fire towards Shisui and the still unconscious Hinata.

A mud clone formed wordlessly behind Shisui and raced off with Hinata back in the direction of Konoha while Shisui's irises began to shift and turned blood red while a black shuriken pattern appeared with a small black circle in the center for a pupil. Shisui raised his hand into a hand seal as he disappeared from Shisui's sight in gust of leaves, making him stop his charge and raise his sword in guard.

"Come out! Get back here and face the heat!" shouted Atsui, hoping that if he were to fail the mission that he would at least be able to kill this Konoha nin and return to Kumo.

"Who's hiding?" asked Shisui as he appeared behind Atsui with a kunai to his neck.

Atsui growled as he kawarimi'd with a chunk of the broken tree and charged back towards Shisui, his sword burning with flames as he held it in position to stab through the Uchiha and end it all.

But then Shisui smirked at him once more, and he felt _hands_ grasp onto his shins, making him hit the ground with a thump as his katana fell out of his grasp. Trying to stand up angrily, Atsui began to trash once more hands began to pop out of the dirt and held him down.

His mind flashed back to the hand seals the boy had made as he realized exactly what the Uchiha had done.

"Genjutsu," stated the boy jonin as he answered the obvious.

Atsui simply growled and struggled some more. "You can end my life today Konoha-nin, but Kumo will demand your head in return for killing its ambassador!" shouted Atsui as more hands appeared and held down his throat so that he could not struggle.

Surprising Atsui with a shrug, the boy said, "I know, which is why I'm not going to kill you."

Spinning the kunai in his hand, he rammed it hard against Atsui's skull, knocking the man unconscious, albeit with a bloody mark on his temple. Shisui wiped the blood off from the butt end of his kunai and put it back in its holster as he began to whistle a jaunty tune and hauled Atsui onto his shoulder, taking his time as he made his way back to Konoha.

* * *

**_Some Time Later_**

* * *

Shisui burst into the Hokage's office with Atsui still on his shoulder before unceremoniously dropping him onto the ground in front of the Hokage's desk like a sack of potatoes.

"I brought the Kumo ambassador back Hokage-sama," said Shisui with a jaunty grin in the Hokage's direction, earning a small chuckle of amusement as the boy then bowed to the Hokage and his guest.

Hiashi was not in the least amused by the boy as he held his still unconscious daughter in his arms while starting at the Kumo nin with distaste. "I want to kill that Kumo nin as repayment for his attack on my daughter, Hokage-sama," said the Hyuuga clan head, ire evident in his tone.

Sarutobi shook his head slowly, "I know that it is your right, Hiashi. Sadly, doing so would only drag us into a prolonged war with Kumo that we can ill afford to wage," said Hiruzen while reaching for his pipe and taking a puff.

Hiashi's hand clenched into a fist but his face and eyes betrayed nothing as he inclined his head at the Hokage's words.

"However," continued the Hokage, "We can demand some form of reparations from Kumo in exchange for the return of their ninja. The Kumo diplomat Atsui was caught carrying your daughter hostage," said Hiruzen with a wave of his arm at Hinata, "Furthermore, it's clear he had skill. The Raikage will certainly want him back," mused Hiruzen out loud while pulling out some blank paper. Hiashi was not happy but he knew there was not much that could be done.

"Inu."

At the old Kage's word, an Anbu appeared in front of the Sandaime's desk in a crouched bow so deep that his spiky silver-gray hair touched the ground.

Hiruzen gestured at the young Uchiha while scribbling away at the paper on his desk, "Shisui-kun will be joining your division starting next week," said the Hokage, making Shisui gape before his face slowly settled on a shit-eating grin.

As Sarutobi finished writing the message and placed his seal on it, he handed it to the ANBU who rose to meet the Kage's outstretched hand. Nodding to the Hokage, Inu disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Turning to the still present Shisui, Sarutobi offered him a smile.

"As you know, it is customary to give each ANBU a unique mask. Do you have a preference?" asked the Kage as he pulled out a form and began to fill it out.

"A-Actually Hokage-sama, I was wondering if you would hear out something I wanted to ask you," said the boy nervously as he fidgeted under the Sandaime's curious glance.

The Sandaime nodded at the boy, "Go on, Shisui-kun. Tell me what you wanted to ask me."

* * *

_**Two Weeks Later**_

* * *

And so it was as Sarutobi said when the Yondaime Raikage agreed to the Hokage's unexpectedly reasonable demands, having no ground upon which to stand. In exchange for the return of his relatively unharmed ambassador, the Raikage would leave the ambassador's younger sister Samui in Konoha as collateral as well as paying some minor reparations to the Hyuuga Clan.

Danzo had been furious with the Sandaime for not demanding a child with the Ranton bloodline at the very least. Hiruzen had waved off his demands, saying that provoking Kumo would only come to harm them later, and that this would open more dialogue between the two nations in the future despite the currently tense political climate.

Atsui, upon hearing that his sister would be taking his place had refused to go and had to be sedated by Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Department in order to be transported back peacefully by a bored-looking Darui, who simply apologized for the trouble Atsui was causing.

The young girl, Samui, had just glared icily at the lazy man. Once he had Atsui ready for transportation, he had dropped off at the Hokage tower, leaving her subject to who knows what in her mind, or at least she thought so, at first.

Shisui's first assignment as an ANBU was to be the minder of the frigid girl, a task he at first loathed. He had hoped that being an ANBU would have meant exciting missions, not doing more of what he already did in his own free time, with what looked to be the most boring gaki imaginable.

The girl had been moved into the apartment next to the Ichiraku family, paid for by the Raikage, and for the next few days, Atsui and one other ANBU would shift on and off as they watched the girl for any suspicious behavior. Not that Shisui was expecting anything from the doll-like girl who had done little but eat, sleep, and stare at the spot he was hiding in.

For the first few days, she had simply stared at the corner he was hiding in and never even bothered to go to the academy she was supposed to be attending. But a few days later, it had appeared that a bit of the child she was had broken through as she had begun to talk at him about little mindless things.

Shisui, bored and unprofessional punk that he was, had decided to breach ANBU protocol and had begun talking to her, making the assignment not quite so bad in his eyes.

The next day he had a break from minding Samui, a Saturday, the young Uchiha decided to go pay a visit to his favorite blonde and his chibi brigade(as he had taken to calling them). He even had a nickname for all of them.

Shisui had spent the rest of the day messing around with them, but he had noticed that Samui had appeared around midday and had sat down to watch from one of the park benches, simply staring as he played with the big group of brats. He had been surprised to see the quiet girl outside of her apartment, but had simply shrugged and called it a part of getting used to living in Konoha.

The next day, as was his normal routine, Shisui had gone out early to meet with whatever gakis decided to show up at Panda-chan's store(Tenten hated this nickname).

On his way there he had crossed by the park only to see Samui sitting at the park bench, simply gazing at where the group of children had been playing yesterday. Lightbulbs went off in Shisui's head as he grabbed the eight year-old girl by the shoulder, startling her, and strong-armed the surprised girl away from the park and towards Panda-chan's store.

Stepping inside, he waved to the bun-haired girl manning the register and headed towards the door in the back of the shop, ignoring Tenten's curious stare as he led Samui along.

As he entered the shop's storage, he was greeted by a chorus of gakis seated around a table playing a card game. He waved and smiled at them before taking a seat and leading the blonde-haired girl to the seat next to him. Gesturing towards the girl, he said, "Gakis, this is Samui, she's new. She just moved here from Kumo and doesn't really know anybody, so I want you to play nice," only to be met with silence and awkward stares.

At this, he shot them all a look that screamed 'Obey or face my awesome'. Samui blushed lightly, which was the only hint that she was embarrassed to be stared at by all of the other children.

Naruto being Naruto went first and tried to break the ice; not that he knew, felt, or cared that there had been nothing but silence but seconds before. Waving his hand into the air in greeting, he shot the girl a grin and said, "Hey, I'm Naruto! I like training, Ayame-chan, and ramen, what about you?"

Samui merely stared at him blankly before asking, "How can you like ramen?"

Kiba began to cackle, already knowing what would happen to Mt. Uzumaki at these words...It wouldn't be the first time Naruto flipped out over this.

"WHAT! HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE RAMEN! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!" shouted the overreacting blonde as anime tears began to stream down his face in sorrow. Samui just stared at him blankly.

"It's bad for you," said the girl simply.

Before the blonde Uzumaki could explode again, Ayame had slammed his head down onto the table to shut him up, earning a muffled 'owww' from the loud blonde as she turned to the girl and gave her a smile.

"It's good to meet you Samui-san. I'm Ichiraku Ayame," offered the brown haired girl, her palm still on top of Naruto's head as he grasped wildly to get her off him.

With a successful smack, Naruto lifted his head back up and began to grumble about 'Mean ramen-hating Kumo girls' and 'Traitor best friends who never have my back' as he turned to the still laughing Kiba and told him to shut up.

Samui nodded at the brown-haired girl and offered a ghost of a smile before her face went back to its usual neutral stare, making Shisui grin.

Despite the cold demeanor, he was starting to like the icy blonde gaki who seemed to be Naruto's polar opposite. He needed to have another chat with the Sandaime, and soon.

* * *

_**Later**_

* * *

Itachi was in a good mood, which was rare. Most of the time, Itachi was simply aloof, serious, even cold. But not today, for beneath the cold frown lay an optimism that he had not felt in a long while. When he had revealed the treachery of his clansmen, the Sandaime had decided to be merciful and had opted to negotiate with the Uchiha.

Which meant that there would be no bloodletting, no violence. Sasuke wouldn't be exposed to any of it, and life could go on in the village. He almost felt like humming beneath his weasel mask, he was so cheerful today. Bowing respectfully to the Hokage, Itachi turned towards the door and stepped out, closing it behind him, only to come face to face with the one man his father had always told him to be weary of.

Danzo stood tall, gazing at him neutrally, but Itachi knew what he wanted almost the instant he saw him.

After several seconds of blank staring, Danzo gestured for Itachi to follow. He hesitated, but began to walk after the the war hawk, curious as to what he intended. If anything, Itachi could inform the Hokage of anything that Danzo let slip that could hinder the peace process.

If Itachi hadn't been so focused on analyzing Danzo, he would have seen his best friend make his way up the stairs and give him a funny look as he saw him following Danzo of all people to an empty room.

Following Danzo's lead, Itachi stepped into the barren room, which had only two wooden chairs across from each other, separated by a desk. The thick shutters only let in a tiny sliver of light into the room, and Itachi couldn't help the feeling of isolation that crept up on him while Danzo sat down at the desk.

Cautiously, Itachi lowered himself on the seat across and removed his mark, never taking his eyes away from the bandaged man. Danzo seemed to mull his words over before he looked Itachi straight in the eyes and spoke in a low baritone.

"Your be stopped peacefully. You know this, and yet you continue to hope that Sarutobi will create a miracle for your family," stated Danzo calmly as he watched Itachi twitch almost imperceptibly.

"I have faith in the Hokage," said Itachi quietly as he continued to look Danzo in the eyes unwaveringly.

"I can see the doubt in your eyes clear as day, Uchiha Itachi. You yourself have seen the fervor with which your clan drinks up the words of your father and the clan elders," said Danzo, pounding on Itachi's resolve with his words.

But Itachi's face remained unmoving, "Indeed I have, Danzo. But I believe in the Will of Fire…I believe that the village will pull through this and be stronger for it, as will the Uchiha Clan," replied Itachi as he ruthlessly stepped on the niggle of doubt that had blossomed in his mind.

Danzo leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, "Then you believe that your father can be talked out of his quest to grasp the title which has been denied to his clan since the founding of Konoha? Do you believe he can be persuaded away, bribed?" needled Danzo bitingly as Itachi's eyes misted over in thought.

"No…No I do not. But the Uchiha Clan as a whole will see reason," said Itachi as the doubt returned stronger than ever.

Danzo leaned back and narrowed his eyes at the young teen, "Do you know what I believe, Uchiha Itachi? I believe that you are lying. Lying to yourself, and lying to me," uttered the manipulative war hawk, practically seeing Itachi crumple internally at his words.

Sensing his inner weakness, Danzo moved in for the kill. "Your clan…your clan will destroy Konoha in their quest for power. You already know this. The conflict will result in Konoha's enemies jumping on our weakened forces whether they be Uchiha-dominated or not, and in the end, Konohagakure will burn…it will burn due to your selfish desire to see your clan live!" stated Danzo with angry conviction.

Itachi…all Itachi could do was look down; Danzo had succeeded in managing to fill his head with doubts. His mind had been caught playing over the scenario Danzo had detailed...and he hated to admit that he agreed with the old cripple. His father was pride in living, breathing form.

To appease his own pride, Itachi had no doubts that he would watch Konoha burn, what with all of the lecturing he had grown up with where his father had declared that the clan came before Konoha.

And because it was ultimately his father who was driving the coup, he himself felt responsible, as though he was the one who was going to embroil Konoha into a war that would end with its destruction. He couldn't handle that feeling. He had to do _something._

Itachi glared at the old cripple. "Enough Danzo," said Itachi, making Danzo's gaze harden as he stared at the boy.

"I know what you want, I know your methods, and I won't allow you to do it. I myself will kill Uchiha Fugaku, and then this coup attempt will crumble," said Itachi with an empty look to his eyes as his mind began to recall the good times with his father. It only served to make him feel ill with what he had just volunteered to do.

Danzo began to laugh. It was not a warm laugh, it was mocking and filled with rancor as he gazed condescendingly at the Uchiha for his words.

"It seems as if I have misjudged your abilities, Itachi. Do you truly believe that the death of their leader will make your clan's resolve crumble? No; your clan is made up of warriors. They will band together and their hatred will fester and their anger glow brighter. There is no simple killing of _one _person that will end this," said Danzo, watching the Uchiha expectantly.

Itachi began to shake like a leaf as he realized what Danzo was implying. For the first time since this meeting had begun, Itachi's emotion showed clear on his face. The shock, the grief, followed by a cold, dead acceptance as his face returned to a stony aloofness.

"I understand…I will eliminate the Uchiha…" said Itachi in near monotone. Outside that same door, Shisui's eyes widened in shock.

* * *

Due to the attempted kidnapping of the heir apparent to the Hyuuga Clan, Hiashi had cracked down on his daughter's freedom. She was only allowed to leave the clan compound to play with her friends twice a week and only with an escort. Aside from her studies, she was to be brought back home immediately, and Hinata did not try to argue with her father on the issue. None of the other kids could bring themselves to protest it, not even Naruto.

Additionally, Hiashi assigned Neji as Hinata's fulltime bodyguard. To ensure this, he went to the Hokage and directly petitioned him to allow Neji to drop down into Hinata's year in order to ensure her safety, to which the Sandaime agreed after a bit of mulling over.

Neji was originally furious upon hearing this, although not that he let Hiashi see his anger. He raged to his friends and complained about the injustice of having to repeat the first year of the Academy. So livid was he with his crappy situation that he even began to blame Hinata…but before the situation got out of hand Ayame-neechan sat down with him to have a series of 'chats'.

These 'chats' consisted of Ayame ripping Neji's weak arguments that blamed Hinata to shreds and leaving the boy meek and quiet for the rest of the day. Needless to say, Neji soon got over his short rendezvous with resentment towards Hinata.

Tenten too was furious, although for completely different reasons. Dragging Lee along to the Hokage's office, she tried to petition the Hokage to let her and Lee drop down as well. This time however, Hiruzen had anticipated the devious little orphan's tricks and shut her down quickly. The girl may have shown politeness and respect towards him, but she had a determination and devious streak that would have made Kushina blush in envy.

Upset, Tenten had then gone to Naruto to complain about the unfairness of letting Neji drop down and not letting her and Lee drop down a class too. Naruto thought upon the issue for abit, and soon he had an idea; a devious idea that Tenten, Kiba, Ino, and surprisingly, Shino and Itachi all volunteered to help him with once they heard the details. Ayame tried to warn him not to do it, but he would not be deterred.

The first part of the plan had involved sneaking into the Hokage's office while he was out to lunch. They had waited a week for it to be Itachi's turn on the rota to guard the Hokage. Actually sneaking in was the easy part once Tenten picked the lock; setting up the trap wasn't. Naruto had quickly opened the desk and began to shovel everything inside to Kiba who was stuffing it in a sack, giggling like mad.

Naruto blushed a deep red once he pulled a certain orange novel and it accidentally fell open, but quickly handed it to Kiba. Ino was standing next to him waiting impatiently while Shino kept lookout using his Kikaichu.

Once the drawer had been cleared, Ino began to empty her sack full of paint bombs and stink pellets into it. Kiba had explained away his owning stink pellets as something his clan used to stop the ninken from going into places they weren't supposed to, while Naruto had simply whistled innocently when asked about the paint bombs.

Once the booby traps were set, Ino took out a small firework with an unusually long string and a strange mechanism at the end from her pocket and placed it in the desk as well. Setting the mechanism carefully so that it'd trigger when opened, the children rapidly retreated and Itachi gave off a rare smile at seeing them go. If it weren't for them…he may have held off on warning the Hokage about his family's mad goal for months. Playing with them had made him realize that the children of the Uchiha Clan, his brother amongst them, were being put at risk for his father's own selfish goal.

So before he disappeared from the village for his crime of kinslaying, he had decided to do one last hurrah with them. He was only saddened that Sasuke hadn't been there today to join in one of the last things they would be doing as siblings.

When the Sandaime stepped back inside his office, satisfied with his meal, he had sat down at his desk to find a sheet of paper that had 'Come find us Jiji' written in red ink and a messy handwriting that he recognized as Naruto's. Confused, he shrugged it off as he reached for the drawer to get a bit of…_literature_.

POP!

Sarutobi twitched once, twice, as he realized what that note had been talking about. Raising his hand to wipe the orange paint off his face in frustration, he formed a hand seal and made a Kage Bunshin, thankfully devoid of the paint that caked him. Nodding, the Sandaime doppelganger took off.

Slumping backwards in his seat, he stuck his hand back into the drawer, searching for his Icha Icha only to find a thick tar-like black goop that smelled like sewage. Gagging slightly, the Sandaime saw red as he reared his head back and shouted,

**"NARUTO!"**

Naruto and co-conspirers were currently hanging about outside the academy when they heard the Sandaime's shout echoing down from the Hokage Tower. Naruto chuckled before he started laughing hard, bending over as he tried to hold back tears as he pictured the old man's office now. The others quickly joined him, laughing their little hearts out…until an angry-looking Sandaime appeared before them, hogtied them all with a rope before they could blink, and Shunshined back to the now ruined office.

Staring them down icily was the Sandaime, making Naruto gulp. This was a new visage he wasn't used to.

"Naruto," uttered the Sandaime, making Naruto cower back a little but with his determination still holding strong.

"Why did you and your friends decide to _vandalize_ my office and _paint the entire room in orange paint_," questioned the Sandaime in a deadly serious voice making the others cower while Naruto just started smiling goofily.

"You didn't let Tenten-chan and Lee drop down a class Jiji, so I figured I owed ya something. In fact, we'll keep pranking ya until you decide to let them drop down," said Naruto with a big grin. Tenten on the other hand, was starting to _reaaallly_ regret listening to Naruto right about now and wished he'd shut up.

Sarutobi shot them all a glare that almost made their hearts stop while Naruto continued to smile. Sarutobi was starting to question if his surrogate grandson had a death wish.

"Naruto…you do realize that what you just said could be taken as a threat to the Hokage? That I could now strip you all of your rights, kick you out of the ninja program, and throw you into the Konoha Maximum Security Prison Complex if I so wanted to?" questioned the Sandaime as the others began to near hyperventilate in panic. Ino and Tenten looked like they were about to cry, Kiba looked like he was going to wet his pants, and Shino was sweating.

"But I know that you won't do that Jiji," said Naruto, his smile still in place.

The Sandaime's stony face turned his gaze back onto Naruto, "Oh?"

Naruto's grin widened. "Yep. You like us to much, and if you threw us out, then where would your kickass ninja come from? Sasuke's groupies? Don't think so Jiji."

Sighing, the Sandaime released the light killing intent that he had been flooding the room with and gave Naruto a deadpan look.

"Naruto-kun, you're the most hardheaded individual I've ever met, and that's saying something. And I'm not sure if I like that anymore," said the Sandaime frankly as Naruto's grin widened as though he had just been complimented.

Turning to the others, he said, "I will allow Tenten-chan and Lee-kun to drop down to the same class as you. But you WILL clean this office," said the Sandaime with a glare, making them all nod vigorously. "Finally….**DON'T DO IT AGAIN!**" shouted the Sandaime, making them all jump as Naruto smiled sheepishly.

'_I can't believe I just caved to the demands of a seven-year old girl and my six-year old twerp of a grandson_,' thought the Sandaime morosely as his clone let the children loose and Shunshined away and back with cleaning supplies in hand. Standing up, he left the role of supervising to his clone as he decided to go bathe and bury his annoyance in sake and smut.

* * *

Days passed and Konoha once more seemed to settle into a calm, as calm as a ninja village could be at any rate. The populace at large remained ignorant to the rising tensions despite the Uchiha clan still believing the Hokage remained ignorant of their plotting.

Sasuke was walking along the road that lead back to his clan compound with Shikamaru and Naruto at his sides. Shikamaru had planned to lazy on a hill close by while Naruto was simply bored and had decided to tag along rather than head directly to the ramen stand for once.

As the trio walked down the alleyway, what sounded like a dull roar came from in front of them. Raising an eyebrow, Sasuke looked at the two with him to confirm that he wasn't imaging what he heard. He wasn't, if the curious glances his two friends were shooting at his clan compound meant anything.

As they got closer, the roar became clearer and a distinctive chant could be heard.

"ITACHI! SHISUI! ITACHI! SHISUI! **ITACHI! SHISUI!**"

"Why are they chanting out your brother's and Oyabun's names?" asked Naruto with a nod in the direction of the clan compound. Sasuke simply shrugged in response and the three began to walk a little faster, curiosity burning. Well, Sasuke and Naruto did. Shikamaru kept up his lazy pace while giving his two friends' backs a dull stare.

Once they were closer to the entrance to the compound the chanting had started to die down and angry shouts could heard, followed by what sounded like scuffling and a large amount of gasps. The two leading the way began to run towards the clan compound and even Shikamaru began to lightly jog after his friends.

Naruto and Sasuke stopped at the entrance, simply staring in shock. Shikamaru caught up with the two just in time to see the horrifying sight.

Time seemed to slow for Sasuke as his eyes began to water and his eyes turned red. The Uchiha Clan was out in full force and suspended in various states of surprise, shock, awe, and horror, not that Sasuke noticed. All he could pay attention to was Itachi as his blade met with the neck of his father and bathed in himself in a spray of blood. Uchiha Fugaku's head fell to the ground with a dull thud. And Sasuke. Sasuke's terrified scream echoed through the compound as the gathered Uchiha all stared on in shock.

**"TOU-SAN!"**

* * *

**Ranton: Storm Release**

**Kikaichu: ****Insects utilized by the Aburame Clan, used for all of their techniques.**

**Ninken: Ninja dogs, used by the Inuzuka Clan**

* * *

**There are a LOT of butterflies in this chapter. A LOT. Good lord are there a lot. I'll try to explain down here what isn't immediately obvious.**

**Firstly, the Hyuuga Incident. In cannon, it happens when Hinata's either 4 or 5 going by the canon timeline. I'm going with 5; I'ma actually take it one step further and say that it happened the night of the funeral for Hinata's mother. **

**Due to the presence of more high-leveled shinobi with reputations at the funeral(Shisui and Itachi), the Kumo delegate felt more nervous about the kidnapping, hesitated, and walked away from negotiations with cold feet without having attempted to kidnap the Hyuuga heiress. **

**As a result, A then sends Atsui as ambassador to Konoha and tasks him the longterm mission of kidnapping the Hyuuga heiress. After about 6 months, Atsui realizes when the Hyuuga heiress is most vulnerable and kidnaps her in the best possible location; the Konoha outskirts.**

**Due to Hiashi not killing anybody from Kumo, Hinata, Hizashi, and Neji are spared a great deal of grief; in fact, since the Kumo ambassador was caught redhanded and isn't (seriously) hurt, Kumo is forced to give reparations instead. **

**Note that Atsui was caught off guard and he isn't **_**quite**_** the badass he is during the Fourth Shinobi World War yet.**

**Next, Tenten moving out. Why she wants to should be self-explanatory and if Naruto can get his own apartment in canon, why the hell not?**

**Finally, the revealing of the Uchiha's plans for a coup gets revealed earlier due to Itachi comprehending the spirit of the Will of Fire earlier; defending the next generation, due to his interactions with the chibi brigade. As for Shisui finding out, remember how he wanted to talk to the Sandaime about Samui? That's how he ends up being at the right place at the right time.**

**Why aren't Danzo's bodyguards intervening as he listens in from outside? They're hiding in the shadows inside of the dark room with Danzo, because Itachi is one dangerous mofo, even before he gets the Mangekyo Sharingan.**

**Why did Sasuke already activate his Sharingan? Well, remember that it activates when under duress. So why didn't it activate for Sasuke during the Uchiha Clan Massacre? Excellent question; it's called a plot hole. My personal theory is that Itachi suppressed it via Tsukiyomi; why else would he use it on the brother he's trying to protect? To instill life-ruining mental trauma? Not likely in my opinion.**

**4/2/2012: Yep, several reviewers confirmed that Kishimoto had Sasuke's Sharingan activate during the Uchiha Massacre in a flashback.**

**As for how I decided to end this chapter, it's a purposeful cliffhanger. Yes, this is completely different than what happens in canon. No, I have not lost my mind and this makes perfect sense to me. Just wait until the next chapter!**

**Hopefully my jumbled musings and insane plot make sense, but review! I'll answer more or less any question that isn't a blatant spoiler!**


	5. Consequences of an Earnest Uchiha

**AN: Well, I'm back, and believe me or not, this entire time that I've not been updating has actually been spent on things relevant to this fic! I went back and turned the polish on Chapters 1 - 4 to 11, actually rewriting several large portions of it to boot, but nothing that changes plot. That'll probably be the last time an update ever takes me that long again, as a matter of fact.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Consequences of an Earnest Uchiha**

* * *

_**Flashback**_

* * *

"Itachi, wait!"

Said boy tensed and reached for his tanto reflexively until he fully recognized the voice, and allowed himself to slack. Itachi reached up to remove his ANBU mask as he turned to face the worried visage of his best friend.

"Shisui. What is the matter?" asked Itachi, making Shisui frown, already being able to tell right away that his best friend was off.

He shook his head vigorously, "Itachi, listen, you can't go through with i-"

The boy froze as he felt Itachi standing behind him, kunai at his neck. "Shisui, don't make me kill you. I'll do it if I have to, for the sake of Konoha. Don't interfere and I promise you will be unharmed," murmured Itachi as he gazed glassily towards the full moon shining above.

"Look at what you're doing Itachi! You're ready to kill me and the rest of your family," Shisui shook his head sadly, "Based on the words of a manipulative old man? Why?"

Itachi hesitated before lowering his kunai and stepping back. "Forgive me, Shisui, but there is little else that can be done. It must be done," stated Itachi as he holstered his kunai back into its pouch.

Shisui began to laugh. Honest, carefree laughter rung through the village rooftops as Itachi stared at his best friend losing what remained of his sanity.

Shisui wiped a tear from his eye, "Do you REALLY believe that nothing can be done? I can think of a million ways to wreck your father's plans. Here's one; why don't you simply stick your foot into it?" said Shisui as he waved his hand, "Think about it; you're the pride and joy of the Uchiha, renowned genius, and are even unofficially considered a Hokage candidate! Fugaku would be overjoyed to bring you fully into his plots and get your mind at work!" exclaimed the messy-haired Uchiha.

Itachi just raised an eyebrow, "And what will furthering my father's plots do, other than get me labeled as a traitor by the Sandaime?"

Shisui gave his best friend a deadpan look, "You know Itachi, for a genius, sometimes you amaze me with just how one-track you are," said Shisui, making Itachi glower lightly before shaking his head at his best friend's antics.

The newly promoted ANBU shook his head, "Never mind that, but think about it; You could become an advocate for a different plan. You could vouch for a parley with the Sandaime, you could vouch for delivering an ultimatum with the threat of leaving the village, hell," said Shisui with a snicker, "You could off the old prideful geezers yourself and save us from this whole fiasco!"

"But wait," interrupted Itachi, "Doing any of this would only dissolve the Uchiha Clan into a civil war between two factions for and against Konoha." Itachi's mind raced through scenarios as possibilities, until his eyes widened in realization.

"You want to force a civil war," stated Itachi bluntly.

Shisui slowly shook his head, "Yes and no."

"If worse comes to worse, better a civil war that leaves only loyal Uchiha alive than killing off everybody. That'd just be insane! But yeah, that's not my first plan," said Shisui hesitantly.

Itachi's eyes shifted from Shisui to looking over his shoulder, "Others come. We can't have this discussion here in the open."

Shisui looked at Itachi skeptically, "How would you- Oh. Right. You should really stop keeping your Sharingan active all the time," said Shisui with a grin. "I know you're embarrassed by your small chakra reserves bu-"

"Just shut up and follow me Shisui," said Itachi with an exasperated sigh. Shisui nodded, and the two disappeared just in time for the duo of genin to miss them.

"Oi, Kotetsu, wasn't somebody just here?" asked Izumo idly as he scratched his head.

Said genin just shrugged, "Musta been my imagination. Whatever, let's go before sensei flips out about us being late for our first night mission."

Itachi appeared in a training ground that appeared to be empty, followed a second later by Shisui. The latter looked around curiously, raising an eyebrow, "The Naka River?"

The calmer of the duo nodded, "This land used to be farmland owned by the Uchiha Clan, but as you know, we donated it for the founding of Konoha. Now it is merely a training ground."

Shisui chuckled, "Never took ya for a historian."

Itachi shook his head, "Back to the matter at hand. You say you have a plan?"

Shisui grinned, "Plan, bluff, something like that."

Itachi just eyed his best friend wearily.

* * *

_**Present Time**_

* * *

"Why have you two called for a clan meeting Itachi-kun, Shisui-kun?" cut the frail voice of Uchiha Maboro through the buzz of mutterings.

What was more or less the entirety of the Uchiha Clan was gathered around the center of the Uchiha Clan compound. Men, women, and children all sat around looking expectantly at the duo standing in the center of the square and gossiped to each other, speculating about what the two prodigies of the clan could possibly have to announce. Or they were, until the eldest Uchiha's voices cut through their chatter, making them quickly quiet.

Shisui grinned widely, "Great question Maboro-ojiisama! We've got some news to share with the clan!"

Uchiha Maboro was the eldest Uchiha still alive, even older than Sarutobi, and was the former pupil of Madara himself. Frail and sickly, the man was on death's door, but he remained as the overriding spiritual patriarch of the clan for a variety of reason. For one, he was directly related to just about every Uchiha present through the marriage of his descendants. Itachi, Sasuke, and Shisui all shared him as a great-grandfather. Another reason was that in his prime, he had been one of the strongest Uchiha in recorded history, second only to the past legends of the Uchiha. Even Fugaku, current head of the clan, deferred to the older man whenever he spoke.

Itachi stepped forward to address the elder, "You see Maboro-sama, we've parlayed with the Sandaime."

At his words, a wave of confusion ran through the crowd, save for Fugaku and some of the elders he had been conspiring with, whose eyes narrowed.

Fugaku stepped forward, "Go on Itachi…I wish to _hear_ about what you had to parlay with the Hokage," said the man with a stony face.

Itachi nodded, but Fugaku could tell that his son was cowed, even if he didn't show it. Shisui stepped forward, drawing the heat off from his friend. "The Sandaime has been discussing his succession with Itachi and me. He has stated that the Godaime Hokage shall come from the Uchiha Clan!"

The gathered Uchiha exploded into whispers and excited exclamations, until Maboro raised his arm into the air in a gesture of silence.

"Shisui-kun, tell me, who has the Sandaime nominated to be his next successor?" asked Maboro, making the rest of the Uchiha watch the two teen prodigies expectantly.

Shisui's grin widened as he stepped forward, jabbing his finger at himself. "Who did ya think it would be if I'm telling ya the news? It's me!" exclaimed the boy…before he turned around and pointed dramatically at Itachi. "Or him!"

This only drew confused glances from the clan as they stared at the duo. Itachi coughed lightly, drawing all attention back on him.

"What Shisui is saying is that once we reach the age of twenty, the Sandaime will place either Shisui or I as the Godaime Hokage depending on which one of us he considers more qualified," explained Itachi to his enraptured audience.

Itachi turned to face his father, whose face was scrunched up in turmoil. "For the first time since the founding of Konohagakure, an Uchiha shall lead the village. The dreams of our ancestors shall be fulfilled. And no matter which one of us, be it I, be it Shisui, we shall lead both Konoha and the Uchiha into prosperity," said the boy, drawing loud cheers from his clan.

One of the more lively members began a chant that was soon joined by the rest of the clan.

"Itachi! Shisui! Itachi! Shisui! **Itachi! Shisui! ITACHI! SHISUI! ITACHI! SHISUI!**"

The roar of the deliriously happy clan came to a swift end when Uchiha Fugaku stepped forward with ice in his eyes, Sharingan gleaming and spinning and held his hand up in a gesture to silence the crowd.

"No."

Itachi, whose neutral expression had failed to hide his hopeful gaze, seemed to age at the words of his father and watched on morosely as Fugaku began his argument.

"No, I will not believe the words of Sarutobi Hiruzen, the same man installed by the Nidaime Hokage who was a lifelong opponent of the Uchiha Clan, even after the formation of Konoha," declared Fugaku loudly, drawing shock and surprise from the rest of the clan except for a few of the more diehard members who nodded.

"But he gave us control of the Konoha Police Force!" shouted a voice from the back of the crowd.

At these words, Fugaku's stony expression darkened. "Yes…yes he did. He is also the same man who lured the Uchiha Clan into the Uchiha Clan compound, away from the village, and ordained his successor shortly before he sacrificed himself to 'Beware the Uchiha'."

Shisui made to respond angrily when Itachi stopped him by placing his hand on his shoulder, shaking his head no. Most of the clan's younger members stared in shock and surprise at Fugaku's words; most of this information was news to them and only the older generation seemed unfazed by this new knowledge.

"And yet, in spite of the Nidaime's words, the Sandaime has ordained that his successor shall be an Uchiha, tou-san."

All eyes swiveled back on the almost forgotten Itachi, his words seeming to garner the support of many of the clan who nodded in approval.

Fugaku shook his head in disapproval as he gazed aloofly at his son. "It appears, Itachi that you have disregarded our clan traditions and shared sensitive information with an outsider, even if it is the Hokage."

Itachi kept his eyes steady on his father's as he stood his ground. "As a ninja of Konoha and a member of the Sandaime's personal ANBU guard, I am obligated first and foremost to Konoha and the Hokage."

Most of the clan appeared confused as they watched the hinting at of some of the Uchiha's dirty laundry, with only some of the more astute members recognizing what was being indirectly discussed for what it was.

Fugaku seemed to stare into Itachi's near permanently red eyes in contemplation before he let loose a deep sigh that almost made Itachi's earlier hope return. Almost.

The Uchiha Clan head straightened himself and grasped at the hilt of his katana. "My son. You are the pride and joy of the Uchiha Clan. A genius, a masterful shinobi at an age when most are only first being assigned their genin team. Your talent for the shinobi arts hasn't been seen in our clan since the days of Uchiha Madara before the founding of Konoha. You are my proudest achievement." Here, Fugaku paused and stared at his son searchingly while Shisui watched on in confusion.

The grip Fugaku had on his katana tightened as he unsheathed it slowly, walking steadily towards Itachi, Sharingan spinning. Shisui stepped forward as well while reaching for his ANBU katana, but again Itachi held up his hand.

The messy haired Uchiha snarled as the black tomoe in his eye morphed into a shuriken shape, but a quick sideways glance/glare from the other boy shut him up and had his eyes back to their previous three-tomoe state.

Fugaku's pace quickened from a slow crawl to a normal pace. "You have broken the one law the Uchiha place before all. You have revealed our secrets to those outside the clan, and the punishment…is death!" shouted the Uchiha head as he dashed forward, sword in position to stab through his son's neck.

Itachi's own Sharingan began to spin wildly as he ducked cleanly under the blade and hit his father in the gut with his elbow, barely dodging Fugaku's follow-up swipe, drawing startled gasps and shouts from the Uchiha clan.

Jumping back to get some distance, Itachi tried to reason. "Tou-san, I don't want to fight you. But if you will insist on this, then I will have no choice," intoned Itachi, tone as neutral as ever while his eyes seemed to glisten slightly in the dying sunlight.

Fugaku shook his head. "You have broken traditions that date back to the Rikkudo Sennin, Itachi. I cannot allow for anybody to be exempt, not even my own son!" shouted the man as he began to make one-handed seals in a blur and drew in a deep breath.

Itachi's eyes widened as he sprinted left quickly, but not fast enough to avoid being struck by his father's massive ball of flame. Itachi hit the dirt and rolled, but quickly got up, panting heavily while grasping at his right forearm. His ANBU gear had managed to absorb the worst of the flame, but his exposed upper arm was absolutely covered in burns severe enough that the ANBU tattoo on his shoulder could barely be recognized.

His eyes narrowed as he gazed at his father, tears silently falling down his face. Unsheathing the tanto on his back with his good arm, Itachi began to sprint straight at his father, who scoffed at the action.

"Arrogance! The one thing that has doomed the Uchiha throughout our history, and the one thing I was never able to rid you of!" exclaimed Fugaku as he dashed forward to clash his katana with his son, "Do you truly believe that you can defeat me so brashly?" The two Uchiha's blades met with a harsh clash as the two struggled to overpower the other, something that was decidedly in Fugaku's favor.

Itachi grit his teeth, struggling to hold up his blade singlehandedly against Fugaku's two-armed assault. He could feel his father's blade lowering closer and closer as his strength left him; he had never been a brute force fighter like many of the other Uchiha tended to be; and so he made hand seals with his free hand.

"N-No, I do not, Tou-san. But it shall be your own downfall," said Itachi shakily as a strong burst of wind burst from his free arm and buffeted Fugaku, knocking the air from him as he sailed backwards, katana left on the ground.

Not one to let an advantage slip, Itachi charged forward with his blade poised and slashed, only for his father to disappear in a puff of smoke leaving a cradle behind, slashed in two. Itachi's heart almost stopped until he saw that there was no child inside when the broken cradle fell to the ground with a dull thud.

Turning to glare at his father who had regained his katana, Itachi began to slowly form hand seals while Fugaku leisurely walked at him, katana dragging along the ground.

"You are in no condition to fight me, Itachi. Surrender, and take your death with honor befitting our clan. I promise that you shall receive a burial befitting the excellent shinobi you have been, that much I can guarantee," said Fugaku in an effort to end the fight.

Itachi gritted his teeth as he took up a stance, tanto at a ready to block any incoming attacks. Fugaku shook his head in clear sadness before charging once more while Itachi seemingly stood there, awaiting his demise.

Gasps of dismay and protest erupted from all of the gathered Uchiha but Fugaku heard nothing as he charged and stabbed through his son, sword ripping out through his chest. His eyes narrowed before they widened in deathly shock as a poof of smoke went up around his sword. But not even the smoke could hide the boy crouched under his outstretched arm. Itachi was poised in position, tanto gleaming, ready to attack.

Fugaku's eyes would stay in that position of shock as Itachi's blade cut his head off like a knife through hot butter; as the smoke dispelled, it revealed that it was one of the pieces of the cradle that was stabbed through on Fugaku's katana.

Itachi closed his eyes, tears slowly crawling down his face as he barely held in the bile in the back of his throat; he couldn't afford to do so now, not after how much getting to this point had cost him. He drowned out the shouts and screams from everybody, even his mother's, as he tried to find his inner center while desperately ignoring the blood that completely caked him.

Shisui nodded grimly to the side as he stepped up to Fugaku's body with an ornate yet ancient-looking scroll and sealed the body into it before handing it to the outstretched arm of Maboro who gazed on silently at the proceedings. But their attention snapped to the terrified scream coming from the front gate.

"**TOU-SAN!"**

Itachi's eyes snapped open at the sound and he could feel himself becoming paler. His face, usually an edifice to stoic calm, stared at his screaming brother, dumbstruck and panicked for the first time since he was a child. He flinched when he saw his young brother's eyes land on him full of fear.

Shisui was beginning to sweat nervously; this hadn't been a part of the plan, Sasuke was supposed to be off in the park with the chibi brigade! He made to approach the boy but was stopped by the blurring of several squads of ANBU amongst the panicked Uchiha. He himself was forced to the ground by one and restrained as Inu appeared in the center of the compound with a scroll in hand.

"Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Shisui, you are ordered to be immediately brought before the Hokage," read Inu from the scroll before disappearing in a puff with a restrained Itachi who had offered no struggle in tow.

* * *

Sasuke froze, not hearing the shouts coming from the two at his sides as he stared in shock at his father's head. So absorbed in his mental horror was he that he never even realized that he was screaming.

His eyes turned onto Itachi, who was looking directly at him as though he had seen a ghost. Sasuke's body shivered violently, but he continued to stare, and continued to scream. Not even consciously realizing what he was doing, he began to run at his brother, run at his…father, only to be intercepted by his mother whose own face was covered in tears.

She engulfed him in a hug and fell to her knees as he grasped desperately onto her, burying his face into her bosom as he fully came to once more and began to consciously cry, and cry, and scream, and cry. The sounds of scuffling and shouting went unheard as he cried. Cried for his father, and cried in fear, fear of his brother who he had loved more than everything else in this world.

* * *

When Itachi came to, he found himself sitting on a chair, albeit with his arms and hands restrained behind him facing the stern countenance of the Sandaime Hokage whose expression betrayed nothing. Next to him on his own chair was Shisui, who looked to be in a similar predicament and was slowly coming to. Inu and Neko stood behind the two, with kunai poised at the two Uchiha's necks.

The Sandaime stared at the two Uchiha prodigies, contemplating how to approach this. He decided to go for the more direct approach. "Explain yourselves."

Itachi opened his mouth, and then closed it. What _were_ they here for? If it was the death of Fugaku, that would fall under clan matters, just as the Hyuuga's Caged Bird Seal and the treatment of most of their clan as serfs.

Sarutobi noted the confused expression on Itachi's face. "You see Itachi(1), my ANBU have reported to me that you and Karasu(2) have proclaimed false information. That I have guaranteed the seat of Hokage to an Uchiha."

Itachi's eyes widened before they narrowed at Shisui, who was pale and clammy at the Hokage's words. "W-W-We did it in order to end the Uchiha's plots to try and stage a coup, Hokage-sama. It was a bluff!" exclaimed Shisui nervously as the Sandaime's eyes narrowed.

"Tell me," uttered the Sandaime, "Did you run this vigilante action by me? Did I grant you approval to use such as a tactic, and to falsify information to my name?" asked the Sandaime as his voice grew progressively louder until it sounded like a boom echoing through the small office. Shisui flinched as the Sandaime's tone rose with every syllable.

"Hokage-sama," said Itachi, drawing the Sandaime's focus back onto the kinslaying Uchiha. "…We will gladly accept any punishment you deem to bestow upon us. But…I wish to inform you that the Uchiha Clan's plans for a coup have been decisively crushed," said Itachi with the most calm he could muster; it wasn't very much, for ninja prodigy or not, he was still only thirteen and utterly terrified.

The Sandaime's stare remained stony. "Elaborate."

Itachi visibly gulped before continuing, "The only people who knew about the plot were a select number of clan elders and my now deceased father, who was the driving force behind the coup even if it wasn't originally his idea. With a combination of our admittedly fake announcement and the death of my father, I imagine that even the elders have abandoned the plot entirely, as their goal has been accomplished…or at least, they believe it shall be so," said Itachi nervously.

Everything was silent save for the Hokage's puffing of his pipe as he mulled in thought, until an ANBU appeared in a Shunshin crouched next to the Sandaime's desk and placed a scroll bearing the Uchiha Clan's fan emblem on it before disappearing once more.

Unrolling the scroll, the Sandaime read while Itachi and Shisui watched on in trepidation and curiosity, albeit with far more of the former than the latter. Closing the scroll and setting it down on the desk, the Sandaime turned to Itachi.

The Sandaime took out the pipe from his mouth and gestured at the scroll, "I suppose congratulations are in order Itachi. The Uchiha Clan elders have just elected you to be the new Uchiha Clan Head," said the old kage, making Itachi and Shisui's eyes widen. Shisui smiled tepidly, but Itachi remained in shock.

"D….Does it say why they elected me as the new Head of the clan, Hokage-sama?" asked Itachi, nervous that he could be crossing the line that resulted in the Sandaime executing him. Thankfully, the Sandaime didn't seem to mind the question.

"It says that by defeating your father in combat, you have proven to be the strongest Uchiha alive, and so they have bestowed upon you the title. You shall be able to take a seat as my advisor in the council, serve as the head of the Military Police Force, and marry immediately, so should you wish it," explained the Sandaime while Itachi sat numbly. Shisui's shaky smile turned into a grin as the Sandaime listed out the perks Itachi would have in his new position.

"…That is, of course, in the event in which I let you live," said the Sandaime, making both pale and stare at him in shock.

"H-Hokage-sama, you can't kill us!" protested Shisui, making Itachi shoot him a murderous glare for his outburst.

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow, "And why not?"

Racking his brain for ideas, Shisui struck gold. "We're basically the golden boys of the Uchiha clan, getting rid of us now would only cause the entire Uchiha Clan to revolt!"

"Shisui!" hissed Itachi angrily; what he was saying bordered on trying to extort the Hokage!

The Sandaime stared blankly at the two who returned the neutral gaze, or at least, Itachi did. Shisui's fear was etched right onto his face.

"I should kill you two," said the Sandaime matter-of-factly.

Itachi nodded stonily while Shisui was starting to get close to a panic attack.

"You're demoted. Both of you now hold the rank of chunnin, and shall be assigned border patrol duties for the next year. You will tell the Uchiha Clan that the reason for your demotion is due to your releasing of sensitive information early," stated the Hokage in a no-nonsense tone.

Both boys just nodded, Shisui more fervently than Itachi as they let out sighs of relief. The Sandaime nodded at the two ANBU making them remove their kunai from the two Uchiha's throats.

Giving the two boys a deathly serious glare, the Sandaime continued delivering retribution. "Consider your claim to the Uchiha Clan to be true effective today. I will make one of you two the Godaime, but so help me Kami if I get even one whiff of insubordination I'll have you in extended sessions with the Interrogation Department! And THEN you shall be given a swift, miserable death!" thundered the Sandaime, making the two nod numbly, both of their expressions showing matching disbelief at their good fortune.

The Sandaime's expression softened slightly and returned to a more neutral position as he addressed the two Uchiha boys. "The fact of the matter is that you two, alongside Hatake Kakashi are my current choices as potential Kage material," said the Sandaime, making Inu in the back tense.

"However, this information was never supposed to become common knowledge; it was one of the few things I could keep away from Danzo up my sleeve. Expect to have him taking a particular interest in the two of you in the future. I assure you that you would be wise to be wary of that man," asserted Hiruzen gravely, getting nods in response from the two as Shisui chuckled nervously while glancing at Itachi. Hiruzen decided not to comment on that.

Hiruzen raised his pipe to puff once more before continuing, "Now that you two have essentially let the entirety of Konoha know that you two are Hokage candidates, you will make enemies. You will become threats and objects of interests to powers both internal and external. People shall try to bribe, intimidate, and sleaze with you. I am expecting you all to rise above this; do I make myself clear?"

Getting more nods in return, Hiruzen sighed. "Good. Karasu, Itachi, you are dismissed."

* * *

_**One Year Later**_

* * *

Two teenage boys idly walked down a dirt path which led to a pair of massive doors and walls, far away in the distance. The two were dressed in the standard Konoha ninja uniforms, with the only thing differentiating them were the red eyes of the boy with straighter hair, and the position of their hitai-ate. The teen with messy hair wore his Konoha headband on his forehead in the traditional style, while the boy with straighter hair and red eyes had moved his Konoha hitai-ate from his head to his right forearm.

"So what do you think the chibi brigade has been up to while we've been gone? Think Fuzzy and Sunshine got the Leaf Exercise down?"

Itachi's response was a neutral shrug as he stared straight ahead at the distant gates; despite his calm façade, Shisui could tell that he was troubled.

The guilt of killing his father had never washed off like the blood had; Shisui knew that much. But he also had a good idea of why Itachi had clammed up ever since they had been dismissed from their year-long assignment.

"If you're worried about Sasuke, don't be," said Shisui as Itachi turned his gaze from the gates onto his best friend, a glare on his face.

Shisui raises his hands in front of him, "Hey, you know that we did all we could. I even used Kotoamatsukami (Distinguished Heavenly God [3, 4]) so that he could understand and make peace with what we did!"

The glare from Itachi softened slightly, and he nodded, somewhat appeased at the reminder. Just before the duo had left to uphold their sentence, they had paid a visit to Itachi's family. Mikoto had been civil, but had acted aloofly and neutral towards Itachi, showing none of the warmth she normally would have towards her own son. Neither Shisui nor Itachi could hold it against her either.

Sasuke on the other hand, had panicked at the sight of his older brother. He had been staring blankly at his homework when Itachi and Shisui had stepped into his room, and at the sight of his older brother, Sasuke had started screaming. He had stopped almost immediately after Itachi almost ran out of the room, leaving only Shisui and the still terrified boy.

Shisui had slowly approached Sasuke, who had backed away from him in fright. Stopping in front of him and crouching down to eye level, Shisui had begun to recount the tale of Fugaku's plan to usurp the Sandaime, Danzo's intervention, and finally, his and Itachi's plan as he explained why they did what they did.

The boy had buried his face into his pillow and begun crying about halfway through Shisui's explanation, but he had still been listening; that was all Shisui needed to work his magic.

At the end, Shisui had activated his Mangekyo Sharingan to cast his most powerful illusion; the guiding words Shisui had used had been 'Forgive Us'.

Sasuke had fallen asleep after Shisui placed a second genjutsu on him, after which Itachi entered the room to bid his slumbering little brother farewell.

Shisui and Itachi hadn't stuck around to see the results of Shisui's use of the Kotoamatsukami, not that they had much choice in the matter, for they left to carry out their sentence only hours later. Despite Shisui's insistence that everything would be alright, Itachi had continued to stress about Sasuke until midway through their border patrol duties.

The messy-haired Uchiha had actually thought that Itachi had gotten over it, but it appeared to not be so as the gates of Konoha loomed closer and closer.

"Look, Itachi," begun Shisui, "you know that Kotoamatsukamidoesn't fail, before I used you as a guinea pig, you used to hate cabbage, but it's one of your favorite foods now, remember?"

Itachi nodded as he recalled the bet he had made with Shisui. He knew for a fact that he used to loathe cabbage before, as he had written it down on paper before his best friend had tried out his technique on him. A few seconds later, Itachi could only come up blank as he tried to remember his hatred of the vegetable.

Seeing Itachi nod, Shisui continued, "Then you know that there's no way he hasn't forgiven you. So relax, will ya?"

Itachi's lips curled into a small smile, before nodding as the two continued their steady pace towards Konohagakure's walls.

"NARUTO! INO! YOU BLONDE BAKAS, GET BACK HERE!"

Shisui's ear twitched at the name of his favorite blonde and he turned away excitedly from the gate guard he was facing only to come face to face with a very amusing sight that brought a reminiscent grin onto his face, Itachi chuckling at his side.

A distinct pair of yellow blurs were dashing across Konoha's rooftops while another group of blurs followed hot on their trail, profanities spewing from the group as the two blondes leading the chase laughed. It actually surprised Shisui that he had to activate his Sharingan to make out the features of the chibi brigade.

Naruto, now 9, was carrying Ino piggyback and jumping nimbly from roof to roof while laughing his head off while being chased by an angry mob of children, namely Tenten, Kiba, Ayame, Sasuke, and Chouji, who raced after the two, clearly ticked off.

A closer look revealed that Ino had a puppy in her arms who she was feeding from the chip bag in her pocket. The little puppy was yipping happily with each morsel that the girl fed him, and Naruto looked to be holding a scroll in one of his hands.

The two newly arrived chuunin watched in amusement as the children chased each other across the rooftops, both silently impressed at the chakra they saw flowing in their feet thanks to the Sharingan; it looked like the chibis had learned a trick or two while they were gone!

Shisui apparently had enough of standing by idly and vanished in a shunshin on the building which it appeared Naruto was going to be jumping to next.

Waving jauntily with a grin at a now dumbfounded blonde on the building across from him, Shisui's eyes widened and his grin morphed into a worried grimace as Naruto failed to jump due to his shock and fell down into the streets below.

Itachi sweatdropped at his best friend's actions and let loose a silent sigh; asking for a peaceful arrival would be too much, it seemed.

The messy-haired Uchiha in question walked over to the ledge of the building and peered down, only to draw back quickly as a yellow blur scrambled up and over the ledge shouting "Shisui-oyabun!"

Naruto's eyes were alight in happiness as he took in the sight of his quasi-sensei, completely ignoring Ino's reprimands and light swipes at his head.

"-You moron, you almost got us killed! Are you even listening to me Narut….oh, hi Shisui-oyabun," said the platinum blonde girl meekly as she cut her tirade short, finally having realized what, or rather who Naruto was staring at.

Shisui took a moment to note the changes that had happened in the last year since he last saw the two blondes. Naruto was only slightly taller than before and his face slightly less round, but he still had his distinctive spiky hair, whisker marks, and big smile. He was dressed in a blue pair of pants and had open-toed sandals of the same color on as well. His bright orange shirt had the Leaf's insignia on the front in blue and the spiral mark found on Konoha's flak jackets on the back.

Ino had changed physically about as much as Naruto had, and was wearing a purple shirt with her clan symbol, the bush clover, placed over her stomach, as well as a pair of beige shorts and blue open-toed sandals. The only notable difference in her appearance was that she had ditched using hair clips and now sported a very short ponytail.

The rest of the children that had been chasing the blonde duo had caught up by now, and had landed around the dumbstruck duo in various states of surprise and happiness, even Sasuke.

Shisui grinned. "So, chibis, you've been learning while I was away, huh?" said the messy-haired Uchiha, queuing synchronized nods from the gathered group of children.

Another familiar voice from behind the group spoke, "If your running around on roofs is any indication, you have all mastered the Tree Climbing exercise."

Everybody made to turn, but Sasuke was moving before others could even take in who it was that was speaking. In a blink, the younger boy was hugging his older sibling tightly around his middle, making Itachi's eyes widen in surprise.

Hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around his younger brother. "It's good to see you too, otouto. I've missed you," said the usually stoic Uchiha.

The younger boy was silent but his hug tightened, making Itachi actually smile as his earlier fears were vanished.

Drawing the boy back, Itachi took the time to take in the sight of his younger brother. His hair had remained in its previous style where bangs hung over his forehead and the sides of his head and hitched up in the back in spikes. He was wearing a blue-black shirt with a high collar with the Uchiha fan on the back, the traditional clothing choice of the clan, with a pair of white shorts and the usual open-toed sandals.

But his attention was drawn back to his brother's happy gaze, which he surprisingly found that it made him uneasy. He had been prepared to get punched, to get shouted, to get some sort of negative reaction. But the only thing Sasuke seemed to emit was joy, despite the slight wetness in his eyes.

Sasuke grasp on his brother's hand tightened as he began to pull him towards the others excitedly, "Nii-san, you're back!" said the younger Uchiha, drawing a chorus of greetings from the other children, most of them sounding like some variant of "Itachi-nii!"

Itachi smiled lightly at the group, before turning his gaze onto Shisui's happy visage. After a quick silent conversation that could only be held by the best of friends, the two nodded before lining them up in front of the two chunnin, confusion apparent on their faces.

The two Uchiha took in the sight of the other children in front of them. All of them had grown slightly taller and had different clothes than they had last seen them in, but all things considered, didn't look all that different.

Shisui shot the lined up children a soft glare, making them all jump to attention. "Is one of you going to tell me why you guys were running around on rooftops trying to kill each other, or am I going to be standing here all day?"

Naruto snapped to faux attention, "Me and Ino-chan decided to borrow some things from everybody else and they all got really angry, Shisui-oyabun!"

At the reminder, the unmentioned children all begun to glare at the two blondes, making Ino chuckle nervously and inch slowly towards Naruto.

Itachi gave the blond boy a deadpan stare, "And why are you not returning their things yet?"

Naruto nodded fervently and opened the scroll in his hand with a flourish of his arm while biting down on his other hand's thumb. Placing the opened scroll down on the ground, he ran his bloody digit along the kanji scribbled on the scroll, making a kunai pouch, a pair of wooden chùi, and a katana embroidered with an oriental dragon on the hilt appear with a puff of smoke.

Sasuke, Ayame, and Tenten all grasped for their respective weapons, all the while grumbling about blondes with sticky fingers. Ino grinned sheepishly as she handed Kiba the puppy in her arms and pulled out the bag of chips in her pocket, making Chouji's eyes narrow.

"You crushed my chips Ino!" exclaimed the boy angrily, making Ino wave her hands in front of her to placate the boy, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"

Shisui then decided to interrupt, "The hell?!"

All of the children turned a curious gaze onto the surprised boy, wondering what he was on about.

Itachi coughed, shifting the focus onto him once more. "What I believe Shisui is trying to say is that he's surprised at the some of the abilities you're showing."

Shisui's bluster seemed to return to him as he exclaimed, "Damn straight I am! Climbing walls with chakra I can understand, but real kunai? A katana? Solid wooden chùi? And fuinjutsu sealing, TIED TO YOUR BLOOD?! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED WHILE WE WERE GONE!?" shouted the irate boy, making the children sweatdrop.

Naruto stepped forward, foxy-faced grin on his face. "Well, it's kind of a long story. The short version is, we found out you two were gone for a year, we complained to Hokage-jiji about taking away our senseis, and he decided to kind of," here, Naruto seemed to think about what he was going to say, "…eh…send a couple of clones to give us some pointers?" said Naruto sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.

Itachi's eyes widened almost imperceptibly, "You're saying that Sandaime-sama has been teaching all of you, personally?"

Sasuke spoke up next, eager to have his big brother's attention back on him, "Yeah he did! Sandaime-jiji is awesome!…but he kinda hates that nickname," said Sasuke sheepishly, making Naruto's grin widen. No prize for whoever guesses who came up with that nickname.

Shisui was still dumbstruck, "All of you?" said the teen, making all of them nod. Shisui then pointed at Sasuke, "What has he been teaching you?"

Sasuke kicked the ground softly while he smiled, clearly pleased. "Well, he taught all of us to throw kunai and shuriken, wall walking, and the **Bunshin** (Clone Jutsu), **Kawarimi** (Substitution Jutsu), and **Henge **(Transformation Jutsu)," said the boy, making Itachi sweatdrop; he had just listed off the academy's graduation requirements, minus the test and taijutsu portion.

Sasuke continued, caught up in his explanation, "But he taught me how to use **Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu** (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu) and how to fight using a folded Fuuma Shuriken!" Shisui's eyes widened in shock; sure, he had been doing crazy shit like that since he was 8, but Sasuke wasn't even a genin!

Naruto sat down on the roof crosslegged with his arm raised, drawing attention back onto him, "Jiji taught me how to turn my chakra into water, watch!"

Making a hand seal, chakra began to flow out from the seated blonde, and thanks to his active Sharingan, Itachi could make out the condensation and solidification of chakra that was going on around the blonde.

He could even see as the chakra-laced water fell to the ground and dispersed through the air. For the others who didn't have a way to see Naruto's chakra at work, the results of his channeling chakra quickly became apparent when they felt the moisture in the air and saw the ground wet in a circle around the blonde.

The other children took a step back calmly, appearing to already being used to seeing this, Sasuke muttering about Naruto being a show-off. Shisui watched on in fascination as the water climbed and spread outwards away from the boy, but soon he was laughing.

A couple of seconds later, Naruto was sitting inside a massive upside-down dome of water that was shaped like a ramen bowl. Grinning, he stood up and made a hang sign. The water all surged into a sphere above his head, no bigger than said head. Reaching up, Naruto's hand turned into a fist as he punched the ball, hard.

A muffled thump seemed to echo and reverberate through the water as it flattened and widened, turning into a disc shape before it proved too much and the water exploded outwards, flying cleanly over the heads of everybody on the roof and splattering the surrounding buildings with water.

Shisui and Itachi just stared in shock, albeit Shisui much more blatantly than Itachi. That wasn't a jutsu; that was all shape manipulation! Basic, yes, but to see someone not yet even a genin using it at all was completely unheard of!

Naruto bounced on the balls of his feet, "So yeah! Jiji taught me how to make water out of chakra and to make it do what I want…" Naruto trailed off as his face scrunched in annoyance, "But he still won't teach me any water jutsu! 'You're not ready, Naruto-kun', blegh! At least Jiji taught me some fuinjutsu out of a book I found in the library."

Naruto's eyes lit up in excitement as he shifted his eyes fully onto Shisui, "Hey, Shisui-oyabun, did you know the Uzumaki were awesome at fuinjutsu!?"

Said Uchiha just shot him a blank look as he stared at the boy in confusion, "There are other Uzumaki?"

Some of the gathered children sighed in exasperation, already used to the routine that would follow.

Naruto puffed up in pride before shouting, "Hell yeah there were! We were so awesome it took three ninja villages working together to bring us down!"

Sasuke just muttered darkly, having already gotten used to and sick of the blonde's antics whenever he brought up the Uzumaki clan, which was often. Very often. So often that he could recite everything Naruto knew about the Uzumaki as well as Naruto could.

"We get it Naruto, we get it. The Uzumaki were amazing ninja. So were the rest of our clans. Can we move on now?" asked Sasuke in a bored tone, making said Uzumaki pout childishly and stick out his tongue at the boy. Sasuke just twitched in annoyance.

Shisui decided to ignore that topic for now as he turned his attention onto the other children, "Alright, let's do this; when I point to you, say what the Sandaime taught you aside from the things Sasuke says he taught everybody."

He moved his finger to Kiba. "Sandaime-jiji convinced my mom to let me train with Akamaru early, and he taught me how to use **Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu **(Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu) and **Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu** (Head Hunter Jutsu[5])…I'd show it to ya but I don't think the people who live here would appreciate it," said Kiba with a snicker, making Shisui grin.

On to the next one, Ino. "You."

"Sandaime-jiji convinced my daddy to teach me some clan stuff early and he taught me how to throw senbon needles! I usually hit whenever I throw them too," offered the girl in her usual upbeat tone.

Shisui just waited, expecting more, but raised an eyebrow in surprise when Ino didn't elaborate. "That doesn't seem that impressive compared to these guys, I mean yeah, throwing senbon is tricky at first, but really? That's it?"

It was the wrong thing to say to the girl as Ino puffed up angrily, making Kiba wince as she reached for her ponytail and pulled out a senbon in the blink of an eye.

Shisui's skeptic look became deadpan as he goaded the girl into throwing the senbon in her hand, "What, you're going to throw one at me, Suisen-chan? (Daffodil)? Big deal, those things will nev-aagh! Shit, that HURTS!"

Ino just grinned maliciously, making the others take a small step back, even Itachi.

The loudmouth Uchiha made to reach for Ino and deliver some payback, but stopped his advance in shock. He couldn't move his arm!

Ino's grin turned smug, "What, you thought I was saying that I could barely hit what I aim at?"

Shisui just whimpered pathetically as he motioned at his unmoving arm.

Stepping forward, the girl yanked out the senbon with a harsh tug, making the Uchiha yelp in pain. "I always hit! I just don't always hit pressure points…" muttered the girl as she placed the senbon back into her hair.

Itachi took note that it was actually strategically placed senbon that were holding up Ino's small ponytail for the first time.

After a few more seconds of grumbling, Shisui had his relaxed grin back on his face as he pointed at Ayame.

Stepping forward, the girl hesitated for only a second. "Sandaime-sama gave me a whole bunch of strength exercises to help me lift my chùi," said the girl before she beamed happily in pride, "I can use the solid wooden pair now too! Sandaime-sama was even kind enough to help me make some attacks," praised Ayame with a light in her eyes.

'_Looks like Ayame's the only one here who shows the Sandaime any respect,_' thought Shisui wryly as he turned his gaze and index finger onto Chouji, who had been holding his chip bag above his head to eat up the crushed remnants of his chips.

Lowering his hand, Chouji grinned bashfully, "Ehehe, right. Sandaime-jiji talked to my dad too, and he taught me how to run fast."

Itachi rose an eyebrow curiously, "How fast are you, exactly?"

Naruto stepped forward to answer the question before Chouji could say anything, "You know how the Akimichi have a technique they call **Nikudan Sensha** (Human Bullet Tank)? Well, take the bullet part literally," said Naruto as he shivered slightly in recollection of past sparring matches.

Itachi's mouth closed with an audible click while Chouji just grinned sheepishly, "Well, there is a downside…"

"Yeah? What is it Tanku (tank), don't leave us hangin' here," chirped in Shisui.

"Well, I'm probably one of the fastest people here, but I can't stop, really, and I can't turn either," said Chouji sadly, making Naruto pat him on the back to get him to cheer up.

Itachi just waved his hand comfortingly, "Don't worry, we'll help you with your problem Chouji-kun," making the boy nod, mood uplifted.

Shisui then pointed to Tenten, "Let's hear the news Panda-chan, how did the Sandaime turn you into a monster of a child ninja at the ripe age of nine and a quarter?"

Tenten's hand was halfway to the kunai strapped to her leg before she found the strength of will to stop herself from hurling them at the obnoxious Uchiha, barely, as she answered with grit teeth, "Sandaime-jiji taught me **Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu** (Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu), and how to use it with different weapons."

Shisui just stared at her, "That's an A-rank ninjutsu."

"I know!"

"….How did you get the chak…you know what, I'm not even going to ask. Is one of you going to tell me why the Sandaime decided to turn you and the rest of the chibi brigade into an army of midget ninja or not? Heck, I'm guessing the rest of the chibis are all stupidly overpowered like the rest of you?" asked Shisui as he gazed at them dully.

The children all nodded, making Shisui let loose a sigh of exasperation before shooting Itachi a wry smile, "I thought you and me were some of the only ninja who were off killing and throwing around jutsu like confetti before the age of ten."

Itachi just shook his head, "It appears that there has been a change in policy while we've been away."

The messy-haired Uchiha shot the group of children watching their back-and-forth a curious sideways glance, "This isn't academy stuff, is it?"

Queue negative head shakes, making Shisui huff, "I thought we were the special ones!" Itachi just offered a small smile at his best friend.

Naruto gave the duo a curious stare, "So…what now?"

Itachi twitched in remembrance before shooting Shisui a quick glance, "We must report to Hokage-sama."

Nodding, the two chuunin stepped back from the kids as Shisui waved at them, "Alright chibis, we've got to go report to the Hokage, but I expect to see you all tomorrow at Panda-chan's store!"

Panda-chan growled angrily and tossed a kunai at the boy, who moved his head to the side nonchalantly, "-As I was saying, at Panda-chan's store. I wanna hear what the rest of you chibis got up your sleeves!"

Earning nods from the children, and most importantly, the loudmouthed Ino who would be sure to tell everybody, Shisui waved goodbye.

"Ja ne kiddies, see ya tomorrow!" shouted the messy-haired teen before the two disappeared in a Shunshin.

* * *

"…So aside from some isolated excursions by some of the factions in Kiri that were quickly pushed out, our border patrol mission was completed without any issues Hokage-sama," concluded Itachi as he finished his report.

The Sandaime nodded at the two, "Good. It pleases me to see that you two can still be trusted to carry out orders."

Shisui squawked in protest but didn't get much farther than that before Itachi elbowed him. Hiruzen chuckled lightly at the duo's antics before rising from his seat.

Turning his back on them to gaze out at the village from his office's window, the Sandaime began to speak, "I trust that you two still remember our agreement from exactly one year prior?"

The two Uchiha made sounds of agreement, making the old Kage bow his head in approval, "Then I see no point in holding either of you back now that you have carried out your penance. Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Shisui, you two are officially promoted to the rank of Jonin. Uchiha Itachi, you have reached the required rank so that you can take your seat in the shinobi council as the Uchiha Head. Congratulations, the two of you."

Bowing, the two thanked the Hokage, who gestured for them to rise. "There is one more thing that I require of you before you can return to the ANBU, however," said the old man, pausing to take a puff from his pipe.

Hiruzen gestured at the scroll on his desk, "You will each be assigned a team of promising students in three days."

Itachi was staring at the aged Kage with widened eyes while Shisui was gaping like a fish, "B-b-but you said I could train Naruto once he finishes the academy!"

The Sandaime chuckled, "Plans change. I thought you would be happy to be able to take on Naruto as your pupil early Shisui-kun?"

"-w can I train Naruto if I have a…Wait, what?! But I'm only 14 right now, I thought I'd be doing this once I was older! And he isn't even a genin yet!" exclaimed the boy loudly, while Itachi continued to stare at the Sandaime with surprised eyes.

More chuckling, "Did Naruto-kun and his friends, or as you call them, 'the chibi brigade' not explain to you once you arrived that I have been teaching them in anticipation of this day? I was so sure that I had seen something like that…" trailed the Sandaime with a gesture at the crystal ball on his desk, making Itachi nod, as the pieces came together.

"…So you want a pair of 14-year olds to train the chibi brigade on their own?" asked Shisui owlishly.

Hiruzen shook his head, "No, there shall be others that will take up some of them as students as well. Hatake Kakashi, Maito Gai, and my son Asuma will join you in taking them up as students in traditional three-man cells."

Shisui raised a hand, "Wait, will I still have-"

Hiruzen interrupted him before he could continue, "Yes Shisui-kun, you will have the students you requested…although one will take a bit of work to get into this experimental program."

The messy-haired Uchiha nodded, content with the Sandaime's words, while Itachi had simply accepted them as any other mission, but the small, pleased smile on Itachi's face indicated approval of his new assignment, but he still had the feeling that he wasn't seeing the whole picture.

"Hokage-sama," asked Itachi, "If it's possible, could you explain why you decided to create this…experiment, as you call it?"

Hiruzen nodded, and gestured for the two standing Uchiha to take a seat. "While rather straightforward, this could take a while," explained the Sandaime, getting two nods from the teens in front of him as they took their seats.

"As you know," began Hiruzen, "The Kyuubi's attack on Konoha killed off many of our ninja. Between the Third Shinobi World War and the Kyuubi's attack, the average age of our ninja has dropped drastically as our oldest talent died in defense of Konoha, such as Hatake Sakumo or the Yondaime Hokage," said the Sandaime with a puff of his pipe.

"In reality, our strongest ninja that aren't retired come from the generation that became chuunin around the time the war started, such as Maito Gai, who were specifically held back from attacking the Kyuubi. Our ANBU are likewise from this generation; for example, Inu or Neko. It's an irony that Konoha, the undisputed winner of the Third Shinobi World War, is one of the villages with the youngest population of ninja outside of Kiri."

Pacing in front of the two, Hiruzen continued, "For some time now, Danzo has been advocating more extreme measures to bolster our shinobi forces and ensure that the general lack of experience that many of Konoha's shinobi hold doesn't lead us to ruin."

Gesturing out the window in the direction of the clan compounds, he continued, "The fact of the matter is that several of the clans have shown interest in Danzo's proposals, in part because he makes a valid point. Konoha's ninja forces are reduced in size and battle experience, and so a solution or compromise must be reached. This experiment is my answer to these calls for action."

The Sandaime reached for the scroll on his desk and opened it with a soft flick of his hand, revealing the profile of each and every member of the chibi brigade with a picture to match. A closer look by Itachi's Sharingan-enhanced vision showed more sensitive information that an academy student would not normally have on their profile, such as being listed as D-rank threats, notes on their chakra capacities, battle capabilities, and psychological profiles.

"Thanks in no small part to your efforts before you left, these children have shown that they have an aptitude above and beyond their age. Their potential was clearly stagnating at the Academy, which provides solid results for most ninja, but not for special cases, as you can attribute to. As such, I decided to foster their talents myself until such a time when the two of you returned," explained the Sandaime.

Itachi raised a hand in question, making the Sandaime nod at him, gesturing for him to speak. "Why us, Sandaime-sama? Surely there are more qualified individuals to be teaching the children than two teenagers?"

It appeared the Sandaime had been anticipating this question as he answered almost immediately with a soft chuckle, "You two may be teenagers Itachi-kun, but you are shinobi. The laws which govern others do not apply to you; you have proven to be strong, talented, and to have a sensible head on your shoulders..for the most part," said Hiruzen with a blatant glance at Shisui, making him twitch slightly in annoyance.

"You are also some of my most talented shinobi, prodigies with great potential," continued the Sandaime, "there is a reason you are both candidates for the position of Godaime. Teaching these children, all of whom appear to hold the potential necessary to excel as shinobi, will not only give you experience leading others, but also make you grow as both a person and as a shinobi."

Itachi nodded, satisfied with the Kage's answer. It had all the logic and wisdom he'd have expected of his aged leader, and even Shisui had quieted as he gave the Sandaime a happy grin, uplifted to hear his leader's praises and belief in him.

The Sandaime stepped back in front of his desk and assumed his seat, giving the two a no-nonsense look. "I understand that I am placing a burden on you very few others will ever carry or ever have to carry. But I have faith in you two to ultimately forge each of those children into talented shinobi, much like yourselves. I am entrusting onto you the greatest honor of all; to forge the way of the Will of Fire with your own two hands," said the Sandaime solemnly.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," said the two Uchiha in synchrony as they once more bowed deeply. Never let it be said that the Will of Fire was an afterthought in Konohagakure. The thought of passing on your hard-earned techniques and wisdom to others was something that carried grumbling and distaste in the other Great Shinobi Villages, but in Konoha? No, it was an honor, duty, and blessing all in one.

Sarutobi nodded, pleased with his two quasi-protégés.

"I will expect you in three days to receive your assigned students. Until then, you are dismissed."

* * *

**(1)** **Itachi also means Weasel, the same mask Itachi wears as an ANBU, so either way you cut it, he'd be referred to as Itachi**

**(2) Karasu means crow**

**(3) Kotoamatsukami is Shisui's ultimate Mangekyo Sharingan technique; it lets the user essentially imprint whatever they want into the user's mind. It's so profound and powerful that it can override Edo Tensei's (4) mind control properties.**

**(4) Edo Tensei is the Impure World Reincarnation technique used by Orochimaru, Kabuto, and the Nidaime Hokage to bring back the dead to fight for them.**

**(5) Head Hunter Jutsu is the technique Kakashi uses against Sasuke to leave him buried up to his neck in the ground.**

**If a jutsu is fairly self-explanatory, I don't really go into detail on it, and to clarify, right now Itachi and Shisui are both 14, soon to be 15. Naruto is 9, Ayame is 12.**

**And with the end of this chapter, this story can now assume a fixed perspective! If you've noticed, I've shifted between tenses and viewpoints for these last five chapters to lay out the groundwork, but the original intent with this story has always been to make it Naruto-centric. Now that the stage has been set, I can carry on with my goal and you'll see the story shift to a much more involved tone. Consider this chapter to be a turning point writing-wise AND plot-wise. How many of you saw all of these twists coming?**

**Put your hands down you liars.**

**Drop me reviews with feedback, the fact of the matter is, I STILL haven't decided who will be on what team aside from Naruto's, and that's a (fairly blatant) surprise. I'm open to well-reasoned suggestions.  
**


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